


Home is where my Q is

by Notsalony



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: AU, Alien Biology, Book Verse, Connections, F/M, M/M, Marriage, Mpreg, Multi, Other, Post Series, Q Politics, Time Jump, relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-09-26 23:36:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9930869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony
Summary: Icheb and Q settle into their new life aboard Voyager in the alpha quadrant.  And just as they begin to make a place for themselves, fate seems to step in to shake things up.





	1. Back

“I can’t believe they kept my old quarters.” q frowned as he looked around the empty little room he’d once feared he’d live in forever.   
  
“I kept them designated for you in case you returned.” Icheb smiled softly, moving the remaining boxes of his belongings in.  “And once we formally began seeing one another, I requested quarters big enough for me and you when you were there.” He gave q a small glance.  “But this is the posting I’ve wanted... and the posting I was hoping for.  And you agreed to stay with me.” Icheb sat down the box and walked over to where q was glaring at a grey wall.   
  
“I know.  I know.  It’s just... can’t I just... you know... make it a little bigger....” q looked up at him.   
  
“Maybe later.  I think I need to get my cubical set up.” Icheb looked at the piece of Borg technology he’d had to take with him to the dorms while he’d been there, and then to the Ark Royal, and now he was back here.  Seven had offered him the cargo bay, since she was busy in her quarters with Chakotay but, he’d declined.  He’d told her about him and q and she’d suggested they take his old quarters.   
  
“Needing a nap?” q looked up at Icheb then.  They hadn’t talked about it much, but the last few months since he’d found out that Harry was leaving Voyager and that Icheb was getting the posting, that Icheb had been slowing down a little.   
  
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Icheb smiled softly.   
  
“I’ll get it setup and you can check it out while I put things away.” q snapped his fingers and the alcove was over in the corner of their quarters, hooked up and going.  “I don’t know everything about the Borg, but I’m pretty sure I got that right.  But go check it out and have a nap while I play house.  I promise not to make the room bigger or add more space to places that don’t have it.”   
  
“Good.” Icheb leaned in and kissed q before walking over to start the tests.   
  
“You know, I hear a lot of ex drones are rejoining Star Fleet after the incursion.” q said as he stood there snapping his fingers, rearranging where the cloths were.   
  
“Yeah, with so many free from the collective and unable to return to their homes or their old lives, a lot of them have started joining.” Icheb nodded.  “Seven and I’ve been asked to build a primmer for ex-drone rehabilitation.” He smiled.   
  
“Does that rehab include sleeping with a Q, because I swear, not all of us are as open to it as you’d think, and I’m not sure I can handle that many people... but for you I’d try...” He smirked at Icheb who gave him a look.  “What?”   
  
“If I wouldn’t share you with the mermaids at that bar you took me to, why would I share you with an entire group of people.”   
  
“Because you like to watch?” q smiled.   
  
“True.  But I doubt you’d be able to handle bottoming for all of them.” He shrugged as he went back to scanning the alcove.   
  
“I... I would not be bottoming for all of them... I’m sure there’s a few who would love to have me top them.” q glared at one of the boxes.   
  
“Sure, sure.” Icheb grinned.  “Just like that guy at the bar was so clearly ready to take you home.” Icheb finished his scans.  “You got the setup perfect.  And you managed to do it this time with out resetting my personal settings.  Thank you.” He walked over and kissed his boyfriend on the cheek.  “Now, I’m going to change and have a nap.” q snapped and Icheb was standing there utterly naked.   
  
“How about this.... I love it when you sleep naked...” He grinned.   
  
“Only because you touch yourself while you look at me.” Icheb put q’s hand on his solid cock and used it to cup himself.  “And I like being watched, by you.” He smiled.  “So I’ll sleep like this.  But I want my sleep pants near the alcove.” With a snap they were set up over by the alcove.  “Thank you.  Night.” He kissed q and padded over to the alcove and stepped up on it, his mind drifting into the regeneration cycle leaving q to stand there and look at Icheb’s naked body.   
  
“God, how did I get so lucky.” He sighed.   
  
“Good breeding.” Q appeared in mid air.   
  
“Hey dad.”   
  
“Hey dad, is that all I get?”   
  
“Icheb’s sleeping.” q nodded towards Icheb.   
  
“And I love that you’ve broken him of sleeping in cloths.  But I really came to have a chat with you.”   
  
“Did they agree to my petition?” q looked hopeful.   
  
“The Continuum has agreed to lift their sanctions on you, and let you leave my custody so long as you abide by two rules.”   
  
“Follow the over arching rule of The Continuum, and what else?”   
  
“That you agree to stay in what ever time frame and spacial location the boy is in, unless you are assigned to a different sector.” Q watched his son for a moment.   
  
“I can agree to that.  I want to stay with Icheb, we’re going to try to make a life together.  The fun we had growing up and at the academy was nice.  But life on the Arch Royal made me realize I need to be with him more.”   
  
“And it has nothing to do with the fact that he went on that date with the Bajorian boy?”   
  
“He didn’t know how serious I was about him.  And he stopped seeing him when I explained it.” q blushed.   
  
“Have you told him you’re planning to marry him?” Q raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Nothing in the rules says I can’t.” He challenged.   
  
“True.  In fact they’ve been looking at it and they agree, you two’s love should be explored.  Who knows, perhaps Icheb’s love is what is anchoring you into a better Q.  So they want to tell you that you have their blessing.”   
  
“The council, the same ones who voted to strip both of us of our powers, _likes_ my plan?” q frowned.   
  
“I’m just as shocked as you are.  But they seem to think that this is a good thing and want to encourage it.  Personally I think you’ve made a fine choice.  I like Icheb.” Q shrugged.   
  
“And now you’re using his actual name.” He frowned harder.   
  
“If the boy’s to be my future son in law, it’s high time I started treating him like part of the family.” Q shrugged.  “At any rate.  I’ve got an assignment of my own.  Enjoy your freedom.  And by all means, pop the question to the boy.  We’ll be watching.” Q vanished as fast as he’d come.   
  
“Great... just what I need.  More pressure.” q sighed as he sat down on the bed, looking over at Icheb’s naked body.  “Well it wouldn’t do to just leave him hard...” He grinned before walking over and kneeling down in front of Icheb to take his thick Brunali cock to the hilt.  Swallowing around him and bobbing his head as he sucked on his boyfriend.  It took only a little while before Icheb emptied himself into q’s throat and he pulled back and smiled, snapping a wash cloth into being and cleaning Icheb up before going to lay down on the bed.  The longer he lay there the more worried he got about Icheb’s continued and prolonged bouts of exhaustion.  q snapped himself up a few decks to an empty spot in the hallway and walked the rest of the way towards the mess hall.  He nodded and smiled as he caught sight of people.   
  
“Q, I wasn’t aware you were on board.” Kathryn Janeway was sitting at a table looking over briefings with her coffee in hand.   
  
“Hey Aunt Kathy.  I helped Icheb set up his quarters and I realized I never formally asked permission to stay.” Janeway blinked.   
  
“I... wait did you walk in here...” She frowned at him.   
  
“You said once that my popping in and out was... disconcerting.  And I’m trying to be on my best behavior.” He blushed. “May I sit?” Janeway cleared a space for him at the table.  “Thank you.”   
  
“Is there something I should know about?” She arched her brow as she studied him.   
  
“Icheb and I have been dating since he went to the academy.” q bit his lip.  “I unofficially lived with him on and off at his last posting.  I didn’t know the captain and I made sure I wasn’t seen by anyone else on the ship.  I informed the captain I was aboard and before I came aboard.  Icheb used to, but he told me... that it’d look better if I told the Captain about my comings and goings.  So I kept him apprised of my plans so he knew if Icheb was busy or not.” q blushed as he looked up at Janeway’s face.  “But you’re different.  You’re one of the people I’ve known my entire life, and one of the few people I trust.  And more importantly who trusts me even a little.” He looked back down.  “So I wanted to ask permission to live in my old quarters with Icheb.”   
  
“I wondered why he requested those quarters.” Janeway smiled.  “I asked Seven but she said it was between Icheb and I to discuss it.” She sipped her coffee.  “How serious are things that you’re coming to ask permission to live here?” She raised an eyebrow.   
  
“I’m going to ask him to marry me.” q looked her in the eyes.   
  
“So quite serious then.” She nodded.  “And how does your father feel about this?”   
  
“He, and the entire Continuum have given me their blessing.”   
  
“I see.” Janeway looked at him seriously.  She could see that he’d adapted his clothing, no longer was he wearing a Star Fleet command uniform, instead he was wearing casual clothing, the style seemed familiar some how but she couldn’t place it.  Tans and grays with splashes of color in odd places.  It was clear that contact with Icheb was making him a better person.  “And what would your function be on Voyager?” She raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Well as Neelix is currently back in the delta quadrant and you haven’t filled his position as Ship’s Ambassador, I’d like to offer my services.”   
  
“As Ship’s Ambassador?”   
  
“I’d say ship’s cook but I’m really quite horrible at cooking the normal way.  I can snap things up just fine.  But doing it by hand more often then not creates things that shouldn’t exist.” He blushed.  “Icheb even tries to eat some of it from time to time when I put in the effort.  He means well but I’m secretly afraid I might have poisoned him a time or two with out meaning to.” He blushed.   
  
“Yes... Ship’s cook is entirely off the table then.” She nodded.  “But Ambassador?  What experience do you have?”   
  
“Beyond the training you gave me while I was a guest here.  I also spent some of the time Icheb spent in classes at the Academy, taking my own course in diplomacy.  The Continuum was rather shocked when I started taking an interest in the ‘lower races’.” He made a face showing just what he thought of that title, and Janeway liked Icheb’s influence on the boy even more.  “But with the races that are ready to handle knowing we’re in existence, we’ve started openly revealing ourselves and making an effort to help where we can.  Not that we’d take credit for some of the things we’ve done.  It’s always been the Q’s job to maintain order in the universe.  So I started learning how to do that on a more active and engaging scale.” He smiled softly.   
  
“In what areas of space?” Janeway quirked her eyebrow as she sipped her coffee.   
  
“I looked up Voyager’s primary mission, and made it my business to become familiar with all the races between here and where you’re heading Captain.” He smiled.   
  
“So you’re aware of our mission?” She gave him a leveled look.   
  
“In so much as was filed with the civilian’s affairs’ station in San Francisco.” He nodded.   
  
“You actually went to the CA and asked?” She sat her coffee down.   
  
“Was I not supposed to?” He blinked confused.   
  
“No, no, that’s exactly what you were supposed to do.  I just... I never dreamed you’d ever do it.”   
  
“The Q probably never would have.  My father never has.  But... Icheb likes it when I treat others the way I want to be treated.  And I want to make Icheb happy.”   
  
“Speaking of Icheb, where is he?” She glanced around.   
  
“Regenerating in our quarters.” His face spoke volumes about something.   
  
“Problems?”   
  
“Not that I’m aware of.  He’s just tired all the time.  I’ve had some of the best doctors in Star Fleet and else where check out his medical scans.  Nothing.  I was hoping your Doctor might have a better sense of what’s going on.  After all he’s the leading expert on drone tech and the Brunali’s medical records.  I mean I even went back to before the Borg tried to wipe them out and recovered their medical databases to see if there was anything in there.  I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it so I went  and asked his parents.  They mostly were quiet.  They indicated it might be a problem with the genetic re-sequencing they did to him... but I looked at their research and couldn’t find anything that would cause this.  But I brought all that for the Doctor to look over.”   
  
“You didn’t...” She swallowed hard.   
  
“Hurt his parents?  No.” q shook his head.  “Don’t get me wrong.  I agree with Seven about them.  Nasty pieces of work to do that to their on son.  But I couldn’t do that to them.  I did make life a little easier for them.  I sort of put a harmless nebula up and designed it so that the Borg wouldn’t be interested in it, and that they’d not be able to see the planet inside it.  And gave them back some of their lost history and some of their technology.  I sort of figured that maybe with out the Borg, they might have been better people.” q looked up.  “What?”   
  
“You _helped_ the Brunali after everything they did to Icheb...”   
  
“They gave me their research on what they did to Icheb.  And they were polite to me.”   
  
“Some how...”   
  
“Well polite might be a strong word.  But after what Icheb told me about them, I sort of expected it.” He shrugged.  “But it was worth it to get what I needed from them to possibly help Icheb.”   
  
“He means a great deal to you.” She sipped her coffee after picking it back up.   
  
“I love him.” He smiled.  “I even petitioned the Council.”   
  
“For?”   
  
“For the right to be bound to him.  If he says yes, I don’t have to zip away from him.  My _station_ will be here with him.  In the same time and space as him.” He smiled.   
  
“You’re willing to give up all of time and space for this ship in the present?” She raised both brows quite quickly.   
  
“Time and space, the whole wondrously huge bunch of it doesn’t mean anything to me with out him.”   
  
“Permission granted.” Janeway shrugged.   
  
“You mean that?” q looked up hopefully.   
  
“Clearly Icheb means a great deal to you.  And the pair of you are wanting to start a family.  I don’t see why not.  And having someone who knows the in’s and out’s of first contact scenarios that we might run into can only be of help to us.”   
  
“Thanks.  I sort of decided on a method of not spoiling anything for you guys.  You’re heading into uncharted areas and exploring.  If you need me, I’ll be available.  If not, then I’m going to sit quietly and let you enjoy yourself and learn as you go along.” He smiled.   
  
“Living at our pace must be difficult for you.”   
  
“It’s taken some getting used to.  I sometimes have trouble occupying myself.  But I’ve been reading over Icheb’s inventions and studying to understand half of what he’s talking about takes up a lot of my time when he’s busy.” He blushed.   
  
“I thought the Q could just know everything.”   
  
“We sell that bit a little thick to everyone, or we used to.  The truth is, we often just pause time and zap the knowledge into our own heads.  Icheb wants me to do it the way he would have to.  And I’m doing the best I can.”   
  
“Which is the best we can ask for.” She smiled.  “Welcome aboard.”   
  
“Thank you Captain.” q smiled and stood up.  “I’ll go down and deliver the data to the doctor and see if he can figure out what’s up with Icheb...” He sighed.   
  
“Let me know what you find out?”   
  
“Of course.  You and Seven are my first calls after Icheb.” He smiled and walked out.   
  
“I do believe I’ve seen something truly impossible.  A Q walked out of a room instead of snapping himself away.” She shook her head.   
  


***

  
  
True to his word q walked most of the way to Sick Bay.  He stood and watched a new engineer installing a back up database.  He looked over at the Doctor.   
  
“Upgrades?”   
  
“Oh hello Q, yes, with all the trouble we had with my database before hand, we’re installing a personal system in here for me to use so I’m not dependent on the primary computer.  And it contains an archived back up of me in case anything happens.” He smiled.  “How can I help you?” He frowned.  “They haven’t made you human again have they?”   
  
“No, no.  I’m still a Q.  I’m just joining the crew with Icheb.” The Doctor’s eyebrows went up.  “Icheb’s actually the reason I’m here.” He held up a tray full of active isolinear chips.  “I’ve been collecting data on the Brunali medical history, their databases on their medical needs and everything I could find about Drones who’ve gone through some of what Icheb’s been through.  And I have his parent’s complete notes on here.  I need your help figuring out what’s wrong with him.”   
  
“Why don’t you tell me what’s been going on.” He lead q into his office.   
  
“For a while now, he’s been tired all the time.  He regenerates probably ten to fifteen hours out of the day.”   
  
“That’s entirely too much.” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“And it just barely helps.  He’s always drained and tired.  And he’s had a few bouts of weakness.  And no one I’ve taken him to has been able to figure out what was going on.  I’ve even had the alcove checked twice to make sure it’s not the problem.  I’m lost here.” He sighed, putting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head in his hands.   
  
“Why don’t you start from the beginning.”   
  
“Okay.”   
  


***

  
  
_Two of Five,  Designation Icheb, species 2461: Brunali, male.  Secondary Adjunct to Federation Star Ship Voyager..._   The voice drifted into his mind.  Icheb found himself in an alcove, the dream state of this cube was distorted and damaged.   
  
_“Hello?”_ He called out as he looked around.   
  
_Two of Five, we require assistance.  Please proceed to the following spacial grid..._   A display activated in front of him, giving a location at the boarder of Klingon space.  He frowned.   
  
_“What do you want with me?”_ He looked up at the ceiling and called out.   
  
_Two of Five, we require your assistance...._ Icheb frowned.   
  
_“I understand you require it.  I’m asking what happened?”_   Icheb felt drones approach him, but their mental bodies seemed broken some how.   
  
_Transwarp Apparator collapsed, ship damage, connection to the collective severed.  Temporary collective established.  Primary power offline.  Power Core becoming critically unstable.  We require assistance..._   Icheb felt something, desperation, coming from the joined voices of the hive on board.  Icheb opened his eyes and clutched at the alcove to hold himself upright.   
  
“Regeneration cycle interrupted.”   
  
“I’m aware.  Run diagnostic seventeen.” The computer chirped at him and he reached for his sleep pants and this com.  “Icheb to the Captain.”   
  
“What is it Icheb?”   
  
“I was just contacted by a cube in need of assistance.”   
  
“Contacted?”   
  
“It’s a long story Captain.  If you and Seven will meet me down in Astrometrics I should be able to explain more.”   
  
“We’ll see you there.” The Captain’s voice cut out and Icheb put his sleep pants back and went to his uniforms.   
  


***

  
  
_Two of Five was contacted.  Connection was established.  Help is on the way._   
  
“Good.  I’m not sure how much longer we can maintain this ship with out it...” A voice sighed, before wincing, a section of his implants dying and falling off of his body.  “I’m not sure how long _we_ can survive.”   
  


***

  
  
“Are you sure the boy doesn’t know?” A robed figure stood in a hall of pure white light, his black and red robes fluttering in an unseen breeze.   
  
“I’m sure.  If my son knew, I’m sure I’d be aware of it.” Q stood there in his own robes.   
  
“This is on your head if it fails.” The robed figure walked away.   
  
“And it’ll be me who has to put him back together if it fails...” Q sighed, looking out the window, watching the curvature of the universe for any irregularities, any hint of things to come.


	2. Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being contacted in is regeneration cycle, Icheb is on the hunt for the Borg who contacted him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you guessed what’s wrong with Icheb yet?

Icheb was in his uniform, plotting out scans for a near by sector when the Captain and Seven walked in.   
  
“Icheb.” Janeway nodded to him.   
  
“Captain, Seven.  I was regenerating when I received a signal.” Icheb brought up a section of space.   
  
“Who contacted you?” Seven started running scans and sweeps.   
  
“A Borg ship some where in this location.” He pointed.  “They said their Apparator closed on them and damaged their vessel.  I want to ensure there’s nothing there and we’re not walking into a trap...” Icheb looked a little frantic.   
  
“I’m detecting faint power signatures from that area.” Seven nodded.   
  
“Computer, do you have the results of the test on my alcove.”   
  
“Affirmative.”   
  
“What are they?” Icheb bit his lip.   
  
“Signal originated from the  targeted location.”   
  
“I don’t know who they are or why they contacted me.  I just know that I have to go.  I have to find out...” Icheb looked stricken, and as she watched him, Janeway could see some of the wear on him that she’d suspected from q’s talk with her.  She nodded and looked at the sensor data.   
  
“Okay.  We’ll move in to investigate.” She smiled at him.  “So you and Q are seeing one another now?” She put her hand out to help steady him as he started to trip.   
  
“I... I...” Icheb blushed.   
  
“Don’t worry, he came to ask my formal permission to remain aboard.  I granted it.  He’s also asked to be a civilian consultant taking over for Mr. Neelix as Ship’s Ambassador.” She smiled.   
  
“He is.. resourceful.” Seven nodded.   
  
“Thank you.” Icheb smiled at Seven before he went limp between her and the Captain, only just missing the floor because of the two of them.   
  
“Icheb.” Seven reached for a tricorder and frowned.  “What’s wrong with him?”   
  
“Q mentioned he’d been getting more tired and exhausted lately.” Janeway helped Icheb into a sitting position.   
  
“His readings are erratic, I’m not sure what to make of this..”   
  
“Janeway to the Doctor.” Janeway hit her coms.   
  
“Yes Captain?”   
  
“Is Q down there with you?”   
  
“Yeah I’m here Captain.”   
  
“Icheb’s in Astrometrics, he’s collapsed, can you snap him down there.  We’d transport him but his readings are too unstable, we don’t want to risk more harm to him.”   
  
“On it.” Icheb vanished in a flash of light.   
  
“We have him Captain.” The Doctor went to work.   
  
“On our way.” The Captain nodded and she and Seven all but ran to the turbo lift heading straight for Sick Bay.  q was pacing quietly, and out of the way, letting the Doctor work.  He’d clearly been worrying but knew enough to stay out of the Doctor’s way.   
  
“What was he doing in Astrometrics?” q looked to Seven.   
  
“His regeneration cycle was interrupted by a Borg ship making contact with him during his cycle.”   
  
“Would that have caused this to lead to this for all these weeks?” q looked worried.   
  
“I do not believe so.” Seven frowned, her eyes on Icheb, like she was trying to figure this out herself.   
  
“Report?” Janeway looked to the Doctor.   
  
“Icheb’s slowly becoming stable again.  But it’s strange.  I’m reading all sorts of biochemical anomalies.” He frowned.  “I’m feeding this through the database Q brought me.” The Doctor glanced at the Captain.  “I think part of this is his biology.  But I’m not sure what could be causing this.”   
  
“How soon until we know something?” Janeway looked at the Doctor.   
  
“I don’t know.  The database goes back as far as their recorded history.  It may take...” The computer beeped.  “Only minutes...” He frowned and walked over to the computer, blinking at the results, and run the scan again.  The computer confirmed the read out.   
  
“What is it?” q stopped pacing.   
  
“It seems it’s a natural state of his Brunali physiology.  They apparently more adapted to... these sorts of situations then anyone could have guessed.” The Doctor picked up a tricorder.  “May I scan you?” q frowned but nodded.  He ran the scan and nodded to himself.   
  
“What?”   
  
“The anomalous readings make sense now.” The Doctor relaxed.  “What’s occurring in Icheb is what his people call the Quickening.  In cases of same sex couples, his species evolved a method to insure genetic diversity that doesn’t always require a strict female partner.” Everyone went blank as they looked at him.  “Normally you’d have seen the signs much faster as his body became transformed to... well.. to...”   
  
“Doctor are you saying...” Janeway started.   
  
“That Icheb and Q are going to be fathers.” He nodded.  “Like I was saying.  Normally the change would have been more immediate.  But his Borg implants have been fighting the changes, attempting to regulate his biological functions, but at some point something clicked between his biology, his technology, and your biology.” He looked at q.   
  
“My biology...”   
  
“The child is a Q, just as you are.  You were undoubtlessly able to use some of your species abilities from early on, yes?”   
  
“Yeah.  I mean simple things, small gravitational shifts, teleportation, and the odd quantum micro explosion.” q shrugged.   
  
“Well the baby at some point became stable enough to access it’s abilities as a Q and actively began blocking the Borg technology from trying to kill it.  The problem how ever is that the child is being born half Brunali, half Q, and containing Borg components.  It some how incorporate some of Icheb’s nanites, probably through his blood, to at least partially assimilate itself.”   
  
“Bu...” q sat down hard.  “But no Q has ever been assimilated.  The Borg have been trying for awhile.  Good old species 1732, the un translatable.  We’re able to completely change our quantum state.  Their tech can’t...”   
  
“Yes, a full Q is able to do that.  But I’m not sure there’s ever been a Brunali Q before.” The Doctor brought an imager over and a holographic fetus appeared in the middle of the room.  “And it’s a healthy baby so far.” He pointed to an implant similar to Icheb’s.  “I’m detecting none of the components that we removed from either Icheb or Seven.  Though I am detecting a few organs I’m not familiar with.” The Doctor brought up a scan of what looked like a spherical organ with a tendril coming off of it using into the baby’s spine.   
  
“It’s his exthial gland.” q looked at it.  “It’s a primary organ in a Q, sort of like a heart and a digestive system as well as a second brain.” The Captain gave him a double take.  “It seems... bigger.” He frowned.   
  
“Bigger..?” Janeway looked at the organ that was roughly the same size as the baby’s heart.   
  
“Yeah, in a full grown Q, the organ is probably about a third the size of the human heart.  In me,it’s about half the size.  That looks like it’s going to be the same size when it’s done.” He shifted on his chair.  “The Continuum was worried because mine was so much bigger, worried that it meant that I was a step in evolution they hadn’t or couldn’t take.  My child...” His voice caught in his throat.  “My child’s is so much larger then mine.  I... I don’t know what this means.”   
  
“Would it be possible to do a medical work up on you and to get you to provide a sort of... Q medical database.  I have a feeling with you and your... child aboard I’m going to be needing to have some frame of reference to work off of.  New species and all...” He shrugged.   
  
“Yeah.  I’ll have to talk to the Council about it...” q went pale.  “I have to tell the Council he’s pregnant...”   
  
“What will they do about it?” Seven turned to him.   
  
“Dunno.  They went to war to prevent someone like me from happening because they hate change.  But they...” He frowned.  “They gave me their permission to be with Icheb... they literally said they thought it was a good idea we got together... they...” He frowned.  “Q show yourself.” He shouted at the ceiling as his father materialized wearing a festive birthday hat.   
  
“Too much?” He smiled, holding a small stuffed Klingon.   
  
“You knew Icheb was pregnant.”   
  
“Well yes.  To be honest we’ve known for some time.  We assumed you knew but you didn’t put it in your request, so we waited and watched and realized neither of you knew.  Then we watched you searching all over the galaxy for someone who could tell you what was going on.  And we even encouraged you to go back in time and learn from his people.”   
  
“You were trying to give me the answers....” q sat down again.   
  
“In a word.  Yes.” Q smiled.  “And fatherhood will agree with you.  We’re all quite sure of that.”   
  
“And you couldn’t tell me?”   
  
“Somethings have to be experienced for yourself.” Q shrugged.  “But somethings... somethings are more... delicate then you’re used to.” He looked at Icheb.   
  
“What...” q snapped his fingers and froze time around them.  “What’s going on?”   
  
“Beyond your boyfriend’s pregnancy?”   
  
“The Continuum knows about Icheb, and instead of fighting me on it, they welcomed him with not only open arms but total acceptance.  And they knew about the pregnancy.  What are you not telling me?”   
  
“Something is coming.” Q sighed.  Waving his hand and the wall joined into the Continuum, the edge of eternity clearly visible as if space was curving into non euclidean shapes.  “The Q are capable of seeing all events, past, present, and future.  We travel the fourth dimension easily enough.  But this...” He pointed to the curve of the universe.  “This is beyond us.  We can not go there.  We can not see there.  And it is widening.” He waved his hand and several structures came into view.  “The Continuum has set up sanctuaries through out the edge of eternity trying to gauge just what is happening out there.  But all we’ve been able to pull out are fragments.  Tiny glimpses of information.  And the closer we get to what ever event that causes this, the closer we get to not being able to see anything.  The Continuum believes that if we enter the event, the Q in this plane will be cut off from the Continuum.  That the Continuum itself will be cut off from this plane entirely.  And they’re scared.”   
  
“Then why...” q indicated Icheb.   
  
“He is one of the few tid bits we’ve been able to pull out of the growing chaos.” Q brought up a log entry.   
  
“Chief Operational Officer’s log, our son made a new friend today.  One of the few races who knew the Q as a benevolent race.  So few of the races in this region have had a good relationship with the Continuum.  I think that’s why Quintin changed his name and named our son Qadir.” Icheb looked a little older as he sat in what was clearly their quarters.  “I know he misses his father.  I think being cut off from the Continuum was a blow he wasn’t ready for.  But he continues to do the best he can, and keeps moving forward.  Even if he’s unsure of every step.” Icheb smiled.  “I think the Changeling hit on him again.  He wouldn’t say b...” The image faded.   
  
“That’s all you’ve seen of him...” q sat there dumb founded.   
  
“At some point in the near future, your son will be born.  You will both be cut from the Continuum, you’ll take the name Quintin and name your son Qadir, a means of maintaining your connection to the Continuum, with out revealing who and what you are.  Because you’ll be in a region of space that doesn’t like us much.  And we know that you two will be married.  So that’s something.” Q shrugged.  “They also know that in that future I’m apparently inside the Continuum when the event happens.  Trapping me on that side of the divide.  I think they’ve been flirting with the alteration of causality by limiting my time inside the actual Continuum in hopes of prolonging our time to prepare.” He sighed.  “But I don’t think it’ll be enough.”   
  
“But Voyager doesn’t have any Changelings on board.  Their peace with the Founders and the Jem’Hadar hasn’t opened to the point that their sending representatives into Star Fleet.”   
  
“It apparently is about to.” Q shrugged.  “All I know is that with the fragments we’ve recovered, this ship is going to be in the center of the event.  The outposts that are slowly getting closer to the edge of the event, are reporting attempts from you to contact us through the event.  You’re apparently attempting to give us a better sense of what’s going on.  But so far it hasn’t worked.  We...” Q turned and watched as one of the structures fell into the edge of the expanding event.  “We’ve lost contact with all the Q in that tower...” His face was ashen.  “They are lost to the event...”   
  
“I can feel the loss of them.” q held himself.  “Like someone cut off my arm....”   
  
“We’ve set up a team on this plane attempting to research the event from this side.  We’re hoping they’ll have a means of communicating once the event has happened.  But...” Q looked at his son.   
  
“I love you too.” q hugged his father before he vanished, restoring the room to the way it had been.   
  
“What’s...” Janeway turned to q.   
  
“The Q are facing a complicated future, and they’re clinging to the idea of my son because they’re sure of his existence in what they can see of the future.”   
  
“Why do I get the sense we missed something.”   
  
“Only a little.” q smiled.  “Aunt Kathy, how our the peace accords with the Founders going?”   
  


***

  
  
_Federation Starship Voyager has moved with in the outer most edge of sensor range._   
  
“Good.  Keep me apprised of their status.” The drone sagged against the controls.   
  
“Are you sure Starfleet is the way to go?” Another drone crossed his arms and looked at the display.   
  
“I know people on Voyager.  I’m sure they can help.”   
  
“We should have just gone back to the Collective.” The drone glared at the other.   
  
“I have been trying for years to leave the Collective.  Now we have an opportunity to get out of their grasp entirely.”   
  
“Maybe you wanted out.  I was happy in the Collective.” The second drown glared at the read out.   
  
“I know.  But the Collective isn’t the answer.”   
  
“You’re hoping _she’s_ still aboard aren’t you?” The second drone glared hard at the first.   
  
“Yes.  I am.  But that is beside the point.  I haven’t come this far from the Beta Quadrant just to return to the Collective that wanted to kill me because of a mutation in my assimilation.” He started typing on a the controls as they faded off and on.  “The Collective has it’s hands full with the Chaos that Admiral Janeway brought to their door step.  We got away and we were lucky they had their hands full.”   
  
“I don’t feel lucky.” The second drone sighed.   
  
“I know you don’t.  But that’ll pass.  How soon until the others awaken?”   
  
_Time to drone awaken cycle fourteen hours eleven minutes._   
  
“Good.  With any luck we’ll be aboard Voyager and we can save us.”   
  
“That’s if Two of Five did his job.” The second drone crossed his arms.   
  
“His name is Icheb.” The first drone gave a sharp look at the second.   
  
“He can call himself what ever he likes.  So long as I don’t have to see him I’ll be fine.” The drone turned away.   
  
“I don’t understand why you hate him so much.”   
  
“He’s the reason I’m here.  If he’d just done his job correctly the first time I wouldn’t have had to be assimilated and I never would have been apart of the Collective.  And I never would have had to be severed from it.” He glared at the wall.  “It’s all his fault.”   
  
“Is that anyway to talk about your brother?”   
  
“He is no brother of mine. He forsook our people and he forsook the Collective.  He is nothing to me.  Not even a means to an end.”   
  
“Remi....”   
  
“That isn’t my name Five of Twelve.” The drone glared.   
  
“If you wish to be called Twelve, that is what I will call you.  But I prefer you call me by my given name as well.”   
  
“Fine.” Twelve rolled his eye.  “I’ll refer to you as Axum.”   
  
“Thank you Twelve.” Axum resumed his scans.  “The particle build up that we’ve been detecting is building up.  I’m not sure what it is, but it’s starting to get harder to detect any thing on our sensors but it...” He frowned.   
  
“The same particle that cut us off from the Collective and trapped us here... I don’t like this.” Twelve went to his station.  “Out shields are failing on several of the lower decks.  We’ve already lost containment on a few decks.”   
  
“Every adaptation we attempt seems to only weaken the shields farther...” Axum frowned.  “I don’t think we’re going to have to wait long to find out what is causing it... or what it’ll do.” Axum glanced at Twelve.   
  
“I think you’re correct...”   
  


***

  
  
“Seven?” The Doctor looked over at Seven who was leaning against the wall.   
  
“It’s... I’m...” She frowned.  “It’s getting harder to see in here.  Everything is covered in a kind of static field.” She went and sat down on one of the beds.  “I’m not sure what this interference is...”   
  
“That’s odd.” The Doctor frowned.  “Your visual implants have begun to react to some sort of quantum disruption to space time.” He went to the controls and linked in to the Borg sensors he’d had installed down here to help boost his ability to determine what was wrong with someone.  “Captain...” Janeway walked over and looked at the increasingly blank sensor readings.   
  
“What’s causing that?”   
  
“An unknown quantum particle.  It’s growing thicker the closer we get towards the ship that Icheb directed us to.  It’s effectively all the Borg sensors can see.”   
  
“Is it effecting Icheb?” q asked as he looked over the Doctor’s shoulders only to frown.  “What’s that doing here?”   
  
“You know what this is?” Janeway turned to him.   
  
“Yeah.  It’s a kind of primordial form of the omega molecule.  It’s what caused the singularity that sparked space time into being... but it’s not supposed to be inside space time.  It’d inter...interfere with...” He blinked.  “Can I do something with your shields?” q looked scared.   
  
“Sure...” Janeway moved out of his way as he began typing fast.  “You’re changing the settings... by hand...?”   
  
“If I use my powers so close to this, it might explode.” q kept typing as the shields turned on around Icheb and around him.  “Okay that should isolate the baby and myself so that we don’t blow up or take out the ship.  I’m resetting the shields for the entire ship to protect it against this particle.”   
  
“You think this is the event that your father warned you about?”   
  
“If this big a concentration explodes, it’d create a rend in space time, and possible lock the Continuum out of reality forever.  It’d also cut us off from the majority of our powers.  But I’m more worried about after that.”   
  
“After?”   
  
“A galaxy with out Q, and possibly missing warp travel... I don’t think it’ll be that great.”   
  
“Is there anything you can do?” Janeway looked stricken.   
  
“I’ve modulated the shields to create a kind of inverse field so we might be able to at least shape the blast.  So that it doesn’t make warp travel impossible.  The Q are going to be cut off.  I can’t fix that.  It’s already an established fixed point in space time that the Q are charting.  And we’re close, dangerously close, to the point in time it happens.  But I can at least save the galaxy from being damaged by it...” q started working away till he had the shield modifications.  “I’m also going to need to make a tiny modification to your deflector...”   
  
“You have permission.” Janeway nodded and q started typing fast.   
  
“This is Q to all other Q who are currently still in the material plane.  The Event is about to happen.  It’s an proto omega explosion at my current location.  I’m sending out the shield specs with this communication burst so that you can protect yourselves.  I need all of you to form a large enough shape to help me protect the material plane from the blast.  It’ll shunt the blast upwards to the intermix space between our planes, this is why the Continuum will be cut off.  But we will survive.  I’m going to ignite the event prematurely to help deflate the issue.  Signal when you’re in position.” q bit his lower lip, the signs of worry etched into his every feature as he stood there and watched a display as an almost impossible pattern formed.  It was as if someone was forming a macro sized omega molecule across the entire galaxy.  The signal came in and q pushed the button that moved them into the deepest concentration and with one last look at Icheb, q snapped his fingers.  For a singular moment there was a near deafening sound of glass breaking and a tearing noise before everyone aboard dropped to the floor gasping for breath.   
  
For a split second they’d been inside fluidic space and about a hundred different locations before they’d settled back to their original location.  q slowly got up and checked the scans.  “I think... we... made it....” He fell back down, a thick black substance oozing from his nose, mouth, ears, and eyes as he convulsed on the floor.   
  
“Doctor!” Janeway ran to hold q still.   
  
“He seems to be reacting to being cut off from the Continuum.” The Doctor was by her side, a medical tricorder on the floor running scans of the boy as they held him still.  “I imagine they’re all going through lesser versions of this.  He was just at the center of the event...”   
  
“Icheb.” Seven slowly walked over to him.  “He is... Unaffected.”   
  
“I find that hard to believe... I...” The Doctor frowned at the readout for Icheb.  “Seven try to touch his belly.”  She reached out her hand and found a blue Borg shield projected around him.   
  
“He’s regenerated his shield nodes?” She turned to the Doctor.   
  
“I think the baby made him grow an improved set.” The Doctor went back to checking out q.  “Icheb and the baby are stable.  Q is... calming down.” He watched the numbers normalize before q finally slowed his seizures till he was just laying there, slowly crying tears of his black blood.   
  
“Are you okay?” Janeway looked at him, half expecting him to be dead with the amount of pain he was clearly in.   
  
“They told me I made the right decision...” His voice was hoarse, and thick from the blood in his throat.  “I...” He closed his eyes.  “I’m fine.  Icheb?”   
  
“Both are doing fine.”   
  
“Oh good...” He slipped into unconsciousness


	3. Life After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Continuum is gone. His powers severely hampered, and a child on the way, Q has many things to over come. But his life is just one amongst so many who have to adapt to a changed universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dunno what got me locked on this story. Just been puzzling it out. It helps to keep my mind moving. Dunno how long this story will be going on, might have a huge hiatus at some point like my other work. But for now, I’m going to write a head on this and see what happens.

“Do...” Icheb struggled to speak.  “Do I smell pulmal?” Icheb coughed as he looked around the sick bay.   
  
“Yes, and relax, I didn’t cook it.  Thankfully I managed to get a replicator programmed to make it.” q smiled as he walked up with a bowl of small olive green and tan colored spheres.   
  
“I haven’t had that since...” His eyes focused.  “How did you get my mother’s recipe?” Icheb narrowed his eyes as he looked at his boyfriend.  “Do I want to know how you got this?”   
  
“I asked her for it?” q blushed.   
  
“Why.” He held the bowl as he looked up at q.   
  
“I wanted to do something nice...” He hedged.   
  
“Q.”   
  
“I wanted to know what was wrong.  Why you were getting worse...” He bit his lip.  “So when I couldn’t find a Borg reason... I started looking for a Brunali reason.” He picked up Icheb’s hand.   
  
“And?”   
  
“And I found one.” q swallowed as he held Icheb’s hand.  “Your people call it the Quickening.”   
  
“I....” Icheb frowned for a minute.  A vague memory of his study of Brunali genetics and the alterations generated by his mutations his parents had set into motion.  “They ensured I’d be able to Quicken.” He looked away.  “Those who Quicken produce a protective enzyme.  It’s the basis for the pathogen I carry in my genes...” Icheb looked back at q and was lost for a moment in his thoughts.  “I am... with child then?”   
  
“You didn’t know?”   
  
“I wasn’t sure what was causing the exhaustion.  I didn’t know what Quickening looked like or what the symptoms are...” Icheb frowned.  “How did...”   
  
“Brunali database.” He pointed over to the database connected with the sick bay computers.   
  
“And the one that looks like a star in a box?” Icheb looked at a flickering light inside a clear box.   
  
“Q database.  I encrypted it so only you, me, and the Doctor can look at it.  I don’t want just anyone knowing my secrets.  There aren’t many Q left now.”   
  
“What’s happened?” Icheb started to get up but stopped.   
  
“There was a proto omega molecule build up.  I had to choose between saving everyone in the galaxy and letting the Q keep their powers.  I choose to save the galaxy.” q blushed.  “My dad’s caught inside the Continuum.  They can’t reach us, we can’t reach them.  Effectively they’re sealed off from us.”   
  
“Your powers?”   
  
“Still here, just... not as big.” He snapped his fingers and nothing happened.  “I have to try a little harder to get it and I can’t do anything big.” He shrugged.  “Still worth it.”   
  
“Our baby...”   
  
“Our son is fine.  He generated improved Borg shield nodes in you to protect the two of you.” He went to poke Icheb’s belly and was met with a blue shield.  “Apparently being both Brunali and Q equals creative.”   
  
“And potentially difficult.  I remember enough about my genetic research to remember that Quickening is going to require some... movement down there.” Icheb blushed.   
  
“If you mean the activation of your ekthian passage, I’m aware.” q leaned in.  “To be honest I can’t wait till we’re alone and I can have a look at it...” He blushed.   
  
“Why am I not surprised?” Icheb rolled his eyes.   
  
“Hey it’s not every day your boyfriend grows a new opening, and one that’s for sex just makes it all the more interesting.” q smirked.   
  
“You’re pretty happy about this.”   
  
“And you’re not Itchy?” q smiled.   
  
“I’m assuming we’re alone then?” Icheb looked around.   
  
“Doc’s out, Aunt Kathy’s on the bridge, and Seven’s working on assessing the damage to the Borg ship you helped find.”   
  
“So, since we’re alone, why don’t you ask me the question you’ve been wanting to ask.” Icheb met q’s eyes.   
  
“You... you knew?”   
  
“That you have been keeping something from me and wanting to talk about it but avoiding it.  Yes.  You have a tell.”   
  
“What tell!?”   
  
“I’m not telling.” Icheb smiled.  “It’s more fun knowing I know how to tell when you’re keeping things from me Q-Ball.”   
  
“Fine.” q blushed.  “Icheb, will you marry me?” q opened up a box he’d had in his pocket, it was a modest band, with a stone that was fused between two different elements.  “The green one is from your home world, and the silver part is a chunk of the continuum.  I made this over the last few months.” q looked at it and worried all the more about this.   
  
“Yes.  I’ll marry you.” Icheb smiled as he reached up and touched q’s face.  “You know I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He smiled up at q.   
  
“Ok.” q smiled as he leaned in and kissed Icheb before pulling back.   
  
“So.. the Borg?” Icheb looked concerned.   
  
“Most of the drones are rapidly decaying.  The surge from the apprature closing on them killed most of them instantly.  The few who are left either deactivated at being cut off from the collective or started trying to find someone, anyone who could help them.  You just happened to be the only mind they recognized who was regenerating at the time in range.”   
  
“They recognized me?”   
  
“There’s a Brunali on board...”   
  
“Is... is it...” The pain etched into his features wondering if one of his parents was assimilated or not.   
  
“Someone by the name of Remi.  Though he’s choosing his Borg designation as his name.”   
  
“Remi... he...” Icheb laid back and tried to relax.  “He was on the planet with me.  He taught me how to play some of the athletic games I liked as a child.  We were best friends.  He...” Icheb frowned, a memory from earlier.  “He’s my older brother...”   
  
“A touch of home?” q shrugged.   
  
“Maybe.  If he was assimilated it either means everyone was, or they modified him like they did me and sent him off to fight the Borg.”  q sat down beside his bed.   
  
“Don’t blame yourself.”   
  
“I...”   
  
“You were about to say how it was your fault that either event happened.  But it’s not.  The Brunali needed to relocate.  But they wouldn’t because of their ancestral connection.  But they’re the ones who chose to fight back and use their children to do it.  I didn’t see them infecting adults and sending them off, only children.”  q looked Icheb in the eyes.  “They choose to fight a war of atrician via their children and minimize the over all risk to their culture.  I’m not saying it was right, but I’m not saying it was wrong either.  Personally I’d have left the planet and headed for some place FAR from Borg space, but that’s me.” He rested his hand on the shield around Icheb’s belly before it let him in.   
  
“I’m glad he doesn’t think you’re a threat.” Icheb smiled, ignoring the Brunali situation entirely.   
  
“I’m glad too.”   
  


***

  
  
“Axum.” Seven stood there looking at her friend, her ex lover, and felt torn between gratitude that he was back and the pang of betrayal to her husband.   
  
“Ann... Seven.” He corrected himself, breathing difficultly as the Doctor treated his wounds.   
  
“Your Borg implants are failing.  I need to get you to sickbay.”   
  
“Beam me.  I give consent to remove any implant you need to to keep me alive.” Axum nodded and the Doctor signaled for his beam out.  He vanished as the Doctor turned to Twelve.  “Twelve, you’re in better shape.  You have a lower level break down.”   
  
“I was able to regenerate before the nodes deactivated.  Axum’s been unable to regenerate for too long.”   
  
“If you want we can beam back and you can help me with him.  Your Borg implants seem to be designed for maintenance.”   
  
“Understood.  Transfer command level authorization to Seven of Nine.”   
  
_Confirmed._   
  
“Thank you.” Seven nodded.   
  
“Save as many as you can.” Twelve closed his eyes, he detested transport.  The pinch, the tug at the back of his optic nerve.  It always made him feel sick afterwards.  But as he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was Icheb and walked over to him.  “You’re injured?”   
  
“No.  I’m going through the quickening.”   
  
“Your with child?”   
  
“Is that a problem?”   
  
“I...” Twelve sighed.  “I wasn’t supposed to be able to.  The genetic manipulation our parents did...” He closed his eyes.  “They took away my right not to be like you.” He gave hard eyes to Icheb.   
  
“I’m sorry.” Icheb reached out his hand.   
  
“I..” The second Twelve touched Icheb they were suddenly pulled into a mental world that showed the Brunali homeworld as it had been before the Borg.  “Where are we?”   
  
“A place to talk things out I think.” Icheb put his hands on his swollen belly.  “The baby is half Q.”   
  
“But...” Twelve frowned, touching his face to find none of his Borg implants here.  “How is this...  And of this... possible?”   
  
“I’m not entirely for sure.” Icheb sat down.  “The baby caused my body to grow an improved shield node and made it to where I could generate a field to protect us from an omega explosion.”   
  
“But that shouldn’t...”   
  
“Be possible.  I know.  But it is.  And the baby pulled us in here to talk.  I blame myself for what happened to our people.”   
  
“I blame you for what happened to me.  Everyone else is still, or was still, safe on the planet.  Once Voyager left mother and father started up again.  They altered me.  Made me... took away my...” He shivered.  “I am less then whole now.  And they have rendered me like you.  Able to quicken.” He looked away.   
  
“I do not fully understand...”   
  
“Males who can not quicken, aren’t capable of it.  We have a gland.” He stood apart from Icheb.  “It’s vital to our reproductive cycle.” He held himself.  “It’s one of the most sacred parts of a Brunali.  We’re taught to maintain it, to work with it to help our partners become with child.  And our parents cut it out of me.  Cut it out and gave me a genetic treatment to make me grow an ekthian passage.” He looked at Icheb.  “They gave me an unwanted sex change and took away...” He turned back to look out at their world.  “I can never be Remi again.  Remi died the day they cut out his vatin organ.” Some of his implants began to form on his mental form.  “I go by Twelve now.  It’s who I am now that Remi is dead.”   
  
“Re...” Icheb stopped himself.  “Twelve.  I can see what our Doctor can do... I can...”   
  
“I’ll adapt.” He shook his head.  “It’s all I can do.” Their mental link severed and Twelve nodded before walking back over to Axum to help the Doctor.   
  


***

  
  


♪chirp♪

  
  
“Yes?” Janeway tapped her computer screen.   
  
_Admiral Paris for Captain Janeway._   
  
“Accept.” She tapped and Admiral Paris was sitting at his desk looking like he wanted to be anywhere but on this call.  “What’s up Admiral?”   
  
“I hear you’ve taken on quite an unusual cargo at your last port.”   
  
“You mean Icheb?” She raised an eyebrow.   
  
“No.  Though I think he’s as happy as the rest of us that he’s on the ship he wanted to be on.  He’s a brilliant young man, but he knows what he wants.” Admiral Paris chuckled.  “No I was talking more along the lines of his tag along.”   
  
“His fiancée.” She smiled as she corrected him.   
  
“Oh, I wasn’t aware it had gone that far.  Congratulations are in order then.”   
  
“I need to read up on Brunali and Q customs for marriages.  I want to get the ceremony right.” She smiled.  “But I have a feeling this has more to do with his little stunt yesterday?”   
  
“I’m told his little communication burst from your ship may have been the only thing that saved our galaxy from exploding.” He still looked stone faced as always.   
  
“It was building up to be a massive omega explosion.  We’d have lost warp travel in the entire galaxy.”   
  
“Then we owe him more then I was aware.” He sighed.   
  
“What is it?  You’ve never hemmed and hawed this much about giving me bad news since I was a cadet.”   
  
“I’ve been contacted by representatives of the new Continuum.”   
  
“The Q who were on this side of the explosion?” He nodded.  “I was given to understand they were in far flung corners of the galaxy.  And unable to instantly travel like they had before?”   
  
“They’re limited.  Though they have managed to improve our long range communications so that we can talk with their main body.  They’re applying for citizenship in the Federation.”   
  
“The Q... want to join... the Federation.” She blinked at the screen sure she was being made the butt of some joke.   
  
“They’re impressed with out much q has acclimated to life with Icheb, and that he was aboard your ship to find out what the Event was and how to fix it in a way that saved all of us.  They said it was proof that humanity and the other races in the Federation might just have reached the level to be interesting enough to talk to.” He chuckled.   
  
“More likely they need protection and a place to centralize.” She frowned.   
  
“We talked about it.  And they have a delegation who will meet you en-route to Starbase 185.”   
  
“I wasn’t aware we were going to Starbase 185.” Janeway raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Normally you wouldn’t have.  But the Q made a suggestion and it seemed to smooth out a few ruffled feathers about your little trip back.”   
  
“What feathers... and the only way I could go straight to Starbase 185 is if I...” She paused and looked at him like he’d lost his mind.   
  
“The Romulan leadership has granted you permission to cross their space.  The loss of Romulus and the destruction of most of their leadership after the plot about Jean-Luc... they’re looking for any and all help they can get.  And that’s why we offered to give some of their people a spot on the addition to your mission.”   
  
“My mission sir, was to trace back our course and establish communication with the races who would want to join the federation.  And to chart slip stream passage through to them.  I don’t...”   
  
“I know.” Admiral Paris sighed.  “That’s still your mission.  But between the Continuum being sealed away, the Borg invasion, not to mention the problem we had with the Ba’ku.  We needed something to help unify the Federation again.  And it was decided that a modification to your ship to help you on your mission could also be altered slightly to help achieve that goal as well.” He tapped something and a display appeared of a new ship.  “At Starbase 185 you’ll find the Antonia waiting for you.  She’s designed to attached to Voyager’s back and effectively add a secondary ship’s worth of technology, space, crew, and other facilities to your ship.”   
  
“Admiral...”   
  
“She also supports our first mobile diplomatic core in history.” He gave her a look.   
  
“How long has this been in the works?” Janeway tapped something and brought the specs up on her pad, looking over the design.   
  
“About a month.  The Q helped redesign parts of it.  But they’ve also helped speed up the build time over the last few days so that we can meet our deadline of it being ready by the time you hit Starbase 185.”   
  
“Am I reading this right Admiral?” Janeway stopped moving.  “The Antonia has a cloaking device?”   
  
“A more stable one based on designs from the Defiant.  It’ll allow her to interface with your ship and cloak both of you for a short period of time.  That’s part of the reason why the Romulans are coming aboard.  There are a few of them who have graduated Starfleet recently and went home on leave.  They were in the system when their planet was destroyed.  We were arranging transport for them when the change to your mission arose and they were transferred to your crew.”   
  
“So I’ll be in charge of both ships?”   
  
“Effectively the Antonia doesn’t have a captain so much as she has a Opts Officer who will report directly to you.  The Antonia is an extension of Voyager.  And she’s there for support.”   
  
“I can...” Janeway stopped.  “You reproduced the Delta Flier?” She sat down.   
  
“You’ll have a full compliment of Delta Flier class shuttle craft, Seven and Icheb helped with the Borg systems on them.  It’ll allow for a better situation for exploration and away missions.” He smiled.  “But then again that’s what the Sierras are for.”   
  
“The Sierras?” She frowned as she scrolled for it and brought up the specs.  “Admiral... I...”   
  
“We read your reports Katy.  We know the sorts of dangers that are out there.  That’s why we designed the modifications to your ship that were put in place before you left.  But these added modifications will make it so that instead of one ship in a fight, you’ll have 4 ships, your own all in one armada if it were.”   
  
“But that usually requires an Admiral on deck and I’m not sure I’m ready to have someone second guessing my every move, with all due respect Admiral, I...”   
  
“Which is why you’re being promoted to the rank of Admiral.  Voyager will be your ship, and you can promote who ever you want up to Captain status to be in charge of all of it in case you’re ever unable to be in charge.  But we’re giving you this because we want you to be better prepared for what is out there.”   
  
“I... I don’t know what to say.”   
  
“Don’t say anything.  Except maybe thank you.”   
  
“T-thank you sir.” She nodded and he smiled as the call closed.  She sat there looking at her pad and wondering what else she was getting ready to welcome to her door.  “Janeway to Paris.”   
  
“Yes Ma’am?”   
  
“Lay in a course for the Vendor system.”   
  
“Ma’am?”   
  
“I’m aware it’s in Romulan space.  We’re picking up some crew members and the Romulans have given us passage to use the slip stream drive through their space to get to Starbase 185.”   
  
“Yes Ma’am.”   
  
“Janeway out.” Janeway sat back.  “Janeway to all Senior Staff, there will be a meeting in the conference room in one hour.  Janeway out.”  She looked at the data pad and sighed.  “Well at least it’ll be nice to have a taste of the familiar with us this time.” A statement she made just as the power went out of her replicator.  “Well that’s a good sign.” She muttered taking out her repair kit.   
  


***

  
  
“I was able to remove 60% of your Borg implants, and stabilize your internal organs.  I haven’t had the pleasure of treating a member of your species before.”   
  
“We are from a small planet in the Beta Quadrant.  Not many people know we’re even there.”   
  
“Fascinating.” The Doctor nodded.  “And how are you doing Twelve?  I’m more practiced with Brunali physiology.”   
  
“It’s... okay.” Twelve looked down at his hands.  One of which was ending in a Borg networking probe.   
  
“I’ll have a genetically grown hand to replace your missing hand tomorrow.  The cellular regeneration of a whole hand takes time.”   
  
“I will survive.  Thank you Doctor.” Twelve looked down at his hand and his stump again.   
  
“I...” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“It’s okay Doctor.  Is Seven available this evening?” Axum smiled, clearly trying to distract the Doctor.   
  
“I don’t know.  I think she and Chakotay will be at the staff meeting I am headed towards here in a minute.  But I wanted to check on the both of you.”   
  
“How many of the drones...”   
  
“Six.” The Doctor looked grave.  “The others we placed in the regeneration alcoves in the cargo bay while I got you two situated.  They needed the regeneration time before they could even be stable enough for surgery.”   
  
“Thank you for taking such good care of us Doctor.” Axum winced.   
  
“Are you alright?” The Doctor brought out his tricorder scanning him.   
  
“I’m fine.  Just... adjusting.” Axum smiled.  “Please be sure to tell Seven I would like to speak to her.”   
  
“I will.” The Doctor nodded and checked the time before heading out.   
  
“You know I gave him a complete medical database on the Brunali, right?” q was standing in the doorway to the isolation bay where Icheb was being cared for.   
  
“So?” Twelve glared.   
  
“So, I’m pretty sure between him, Icheb, Seven, and myself we can probably repair the genetic damage they inflicted on you.  Maybe even regenerate or grow you a new vatin organ.”   
  
“I...” The longing in his eyes was clear, but he had spent too long in this new set of life to trust even the faintest glimmer of hope.  “I do not require pity.” He turned on his side and laid facing away from him.   
  
“See to Icheb.  I’ll keep an eye on Twelve.” Axum waved q off who went back to Icheb.   
  
“You do not have to protect me.” Twelve said quietly sometime later.   
  
“I have a great deal of responsible for those who are apart of my crew.  Even if we were Borg.  And I am never going to stop keeping an eye on all of you.  So why don’t you rest while you can, if you can.  I will too.  And maybe when we awake they can attach your arm and begin our time in the regeneration alcoves.”   
  
“Agreed.” A hesitant voice spoke in the dark and Twelve closed his eyes.   
  
“Is he going to be okay?” Icheb asked quietly as q came in and sat next to him.   
  
“I don’t think so.  What they did to him... I’m not sure if he’ll ever fully recover.  Even if we can put him back to the way he was meant to be.” q frowned.   
  
“Can you....?” Icheb swallowed.   
  
“Before, yeah, it would have been a snap.  But now... with out seeing a working vatin organ... I’m not entirely sure I could do it, even with a little bit of stored up juice.”   
  
“But if you could see a working one... would that help?” Icheb thought.   
  
“I don’t know... maybe.  But how am I going to...”   
  
“Can you still transport yourself back in time?” Icheb looked at him.   
  
“I... haven’t tried.  That... I...” q sat down for a second.  “Maybe.” It wouldn’t be as safe.  I might be able to do it.  And in the past I’d have more of a connection to the Continuum, so getting back wouldn’t be a problem.  But I’m going to have to go back and forth through the Event twice more if I travel back to when you’re thinking.”   
  
“And that was days of being unconscious and near death for you.” Icheb nodded.  “So we’re not doing that.” Icheb sighed.   
  
“Maybe, maybe not.” q started to stand up.  “I-”   
  
“q, if you’d please join us, I called for all senior staff.” Janeway chimed in.   
  
“Uh, yes Captain, right away Captain.” q leaned in and kissed Icheb.  “I’ll be back soon.”  He was glad for his time as a human.  He’d have probably just snapped himself up to her, but knowing the complicated system of turbo lifts and corridors he was soon in the meeting sitting there with the others looking to Captain Janeway, wait... was that an extra pip?   
  
“We’ve have had a small alteration to our plans to return to the Delta Quadrant.”


	4. Picking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to breach the unbreachable line and see behind the Romulan Empire’s wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gods the research in this story is amazing. And I picked up two friends who are majorly into Star Trek too. -smiles-

“What do you mean a small alteration?” Tuvok raised an eyebrow.

“Starfleet has decided that we’ll be traveling to the Vendor system to take on a few Romulan Starfleet cadets, and after that we’re heading to Starbase 185 where we’ll link up with the other new members of our crew.”

“Captain?” Chakotay raised an eyebrow.

“We’re taking on a second ship which was designed to connect with Voyager to help supply us and aid us in our mission in the Delta Quadrant.” She tapped a button and the display behind her activated.  “The USS Antonia, She’s a Quadrant Class vessel in the fleet.  She’s designed to house not only a diplomatic core, with selected delegates from the major Federation Worlds, but she is also going to contain a habitat deck which has been designed similarly to the promenade of Deep Space 9.  It will house samples of various cultures from across the Federation, to give us a touch and taste of home.” She brought up another image.  “I’m been made aware that my ship’s ambassador’s office will be aboard the Antonia, so while she’s docked with us, q, you’ll be allowed to make changes to your office once you get to see it.” She tapped something and the pad in front of him lit up.

“Thank you Captain.” q nodded, glancing at the pad.

“The Antonia will also bring in new technologies, such as a working cloak designed to integrate with Voyager so we can cloak as well.  And she comes equipped with a compliment of Delta Flier Class shuttles, built to Tom and Seven’s specifications.  She will also come with two Sierra class escorts that can dock in her.  And a couple of the new Argo Class shuttles.  Which means while you’re off duty Tom, I want you to brush up on driving the Argo and it’s ATV counter part.” She smiled at him as she tapped her pad and his pad lit up.  “Seven, I want you to start with Icheb to make the cargo bay into a more suitable home for our ex drone crew.”

“Yes Captain.  I’ve been giving some thought to that.” Seven nodded.

“We have six ex drones on board as of right now.  And thanks to the liberated Borg, some of whom are Starfleet we’re going to have a small population of ex drones on board in need of a regeneration chamber.  Some wont need it as much as others.”

“I think with Axum and Twelve’s help I can remove a few of the least damaged alcoves from their ship and transport them to help retrofit the cargo bay.”

“Good idea Seven.” Janeway smiled.  “I’ll leave the configuration with you and Icheb since you’re in charge of the ex drone program at the academy.”  She tapped her tablet and watched as Seven’s updated.  “We also are going to require some engineering teams prep the damaged Borg vessel for demolition when we’re done harvesting what we need.  Then there’s the work on getting the new docking ports built while we’re en route to Starbase 185.” She sent the data to B’Elanna.

“I can start working on teams to get us set up.  I’m assuming the schematics want us to put a connection above the slip stream core?” B’Elanna flipped through the pages.

“Yes.” Janeway nodded.  “The Antonia’s been configured so that her slip stream core will link up with ours.”

“We’ll have to drop to warp for part of the trip.  But I can get some teams on it tonight.”

“Thank you B’Elanna.” Janeway smiled.  “Now Doctor.  Starfleet has deferred to my judgment on this, but I’m keeping you on as Chief Medical Officer, and we’ll be retrofitting quarters for you so that you can leave sick bay.  I don’t need to know right now, but look over the specifications, and let me know if your family will be joining you...” She looked him in the eyes before sending the data to his pad.

“Thank you Captain.” The Doctor nodded.

“Also Doctor, you’ll find a list of staff they want to assign as your support.  So you wont be the only one on board.  Between that and Reg saying that the Antonia has a full photonics’ lab.  I think you’re going to have your hands busy with planning the next few weeks while we make this trip.”

“Understood Captain.” He smiled as he accepted the data and started skimming.

“q, I’m going to send the information for you to pass along to Icheb.  When he’s feeling up to it I need input on several areas for him.” She picked up the pad at Icheb’s seat and sent data to it before handing it to q.

“Yes ma’am.” q nodded.

“So who’s Captaining the Antonia?” Chakotay asked as he looked over the notes.

“The Captain of Voyager will be Captain to both ships.” Janeway nodded.

“And our admiral?” Chakotay sat his pad down.

“Oh tell me my father didn’t sign on for this mission.” Tom looked beside himself as he sat his pad down.

“No.  In fact knowing how close we are and how unlikely it would be that we’d acclimate to having a stranger brought in to give us orders on our home.  Starfleet has promoted me to the rank of Admiral.” Janeway looked around the room.  “And.” She opened a box and held up a Captain’s pin.  “I’m promoting Commander Chakotay to the rank of Captain.” She smiled, moving over and pinning the pin on him.  “I’ll be getting an official office built eventually.  For now, we’ll both be working out of the ready room while I pack up my things and you move in yours.”

“So you’re trusting me in charge of the day to day operations?” Chakotay looked at her.

“I’ll be in charge of the mission and over all in charge of our little armada, but yes Captain Chakotay, I trust you implicitly with the captain’s chair and this ship.  I’ve come to rely on your judgment and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“And my first officer?” He looked at her carefully.

“Yours to name.  I’ll leave it to you and whom ever you pick to make the choices in that respect.” She watched him nod.

“Is there anything else we should know Admiral?” Tuvok raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll be having a delegation from the New Continuum aboard as well as members of the Dominion alliance and a Changeling or two will be assigned as ambassadors aboard Voyager.  I’m told all the ambassadors who were assigned to us were informed that while they are here to help negotiate peace treaties with the various races we’ll encounter, that the chain of command aboard starts with me and my staff, and they are guests and crew here, not out ranking any of us.”

“I bet they loved that.” Tom smirked.

“Yes, I can only imagine how that conversation went.” Janeway smirked.  “But we’re also looking at bringing new people into our family.  People who will have to learn how we do things around here and we’ll have to adapt as well.” She smiled.  “And this time we’re going in with the supplies and the people to back us up.  We’re not alone this time.” She smiled as they broke up.

***

“You seem to be progressing at a slightly faster pace then the data would suggest.” The Doctor frowned as he looked at Icheb’s latest scans.  “I’m not sure if it’s the Borg implants or if it’s the Q-ness of the baby.  But he seems to be... in a bit of a hurry.”

“Could it be the genetic manipulations?” Icheb arched an eyebrow, his breath coming in a pant as the baby kicked again.

“It might be.  It’s making it difficult to say when your due date will be.” The Doctor sighed.

“Am I able to return to my quarters?” Icheb gave a hopeful look at q.

“Did you get the bed set up?” The Doctor looked at q.

“Yes.” He nodded and squeezed Icheb’s hand.  “I moved the bed so you can go straight to laying down if you come out of your regeneration still weak or tired.  And made it more comfortable for you to sit down when you need to.” He smiled brightly.

“So long as you lay down when you feel tired, and you get a minimum number of hours in your alcove, I can release you to your quarters.”

“And duty?” Icheb’s eyes showed how much he wanted to return to work.

“Restrictive duty.” The Doctor crossed his arms.  “I’ve talked with the Admiral and the Captain.” The Doctor’s face clearly showing how difficult it was to change to calling them by their new titles.  “And they agree.  You’ll have access to the pads for what’s going on with the people under you.  But you’re to delegate who covers your shifts for now.”

“I’m going to go stir crazy.” Icheb sighed.

“Well if it helps you can help me with my new duty.” q chuckled.

“Helping design the shop order for the Antonia’s habitat system seems interesting.”

“Well there’s that.” q nodded.  “But there’s also the fact that we have six ex drones on board.  Then there’s the fact that Star Fleet’s given us eight more ex drones as well.  Seven’s looking forwards to you being able to help out a little bit more with designs for the Borg systems in the cargo bay.  They’ll be turning it into a kind of group home for all the ex drones.”

“Seems efficient.” Icheb nodded.

“It’s going to be a complicated situation.  One of the ex drones is Hirogen and another is Bajoran.  We have all sorts of species coming aboard.” q sat down next to Icheb.  “If this wasn’t happening on this ship I’d say they were insane to try.”

“Admiral Janeway has that about herself.”

“Oh it’s not just Aunt Kathy.  This ship seems to be some sort of lightning rod for long shots and last chances.” He smiled.  “Taking in strays is a bit of a tradition I suppose.”

“It’s worked out before.” Icheb smiled back at him.

“Oh, go on back to your quarters.” The Doctor rolled his eyes.  “Honestly.  The pair of you are taking up space at this point.” He chuckled.

“Yes Sir.” Icheb nodded, and q came to his side to help him up and they waved as they headed out of sick bay, The Doctor smiled as he walked to his office and opened the files.

“Computer.  Is my personal holo files still functioning.”

“Yes.”

“Can you show me the progress of the data decryption for Jason Tabreez?”

“Affirmative.” Data appeared on his screen.  Physical parameters and data he’d gleamed while on the surface of Tykon.  He’d been away minutes on Voyager but down on the planet’s surface, speeding away at a different temporal rate, he’d lived a life that he didn’t talk much about.  Part of that was his son Jason.  Long since dead due to the time difference.  In fact he was pretty sure hundreds of thousands of generations had come and gone since he left Jason on Tykon.  Knowing he wouldn’t get to see who Jason became, he’d preformed all the medical scans and data records he could preform on the surface and encoded them into his holomatrix.  Hoping that one day he might run the program and get to raise Jason himself.  Jason had been so young when he’d had to leave, he wasn’t sure if there was much for a personality matrix when he’d started.  But when Gotana-Retz had come back one of the gifts he’d brought them was detailed personal histories of Jason’s children and of Jason’s life.  He had enough data to program both Jason and Mareeza.

He smiled as he looked at their photos.  He’d have his family back.  He brought up the files from his first attempt at designing a photonic family.  Looking longingly at the photo of the four of them together.  He’d learned his lesson about programming from scratch.  Designing them off of real people this time would hopefully build a better start.  He’d gone back eventually of course.  To see the final parts of the program.  His wife at the time had left him and his son had straightened out.  He was planning on mixing the house holds.  He hoped his sons would get along.

***

The radiant white light coming off of the various surfaces of the octagonal room stood in stark contrast to the figures moving about in crimson red from head to toe.  Their hands were in the air moving objects suspended by nothing in thin air.  A third came in and watched for a moment.

“The primary systems are finished.  They’re questioning how we’re progressing this quickly.” The female voice spoke through the mask.

“I miss the days when I’m Q, was all it took.” A male voice sighed as he helped steady the construction of the tubular structure.  “But with out the power of the full Continuum, we’re limited in what we can do.”

“We joined the Federation for a reason Q.” The female sighed.  “We need them as much as they need us.  We can defend ourselves for the next few hundred thousand years.  But ultimately we get home faster with their help.”

“I’m aware.” He sighed.  “Doesn’t mean I’m given them the secret to our mater reconstitution drives.” He picked up the next piece with his mind as it was printed mid air.

“No one’s asking for that.  No one’s informing them of that either.” She smiled.  “They wouldn’t understand how it works let alone how to use it and not obliterate themselves.  So for now, it’s something we can do in groups but not something we can explain to them.” She turned back to the blue prints.  “We’ll have most of the core parts of the ship that we need to add done by the time we get to their Starbase.”

“Should we contact q?” Asked the other female.

“No.  Not yet.  He’ll have been informed of our up coming arrival.  Open lines of communication on this plane are entirely too easily to intercept.  It’s best if we leave them to their tasks and let him be for now.  He’ll have enough on his plate by the time we arrive.” She walked out of the room.

“Are you sure not telling them is the right thing to do?” The remaining female asked the male.

“I think we can achieve our joint goals.  Protecting the galaxy and maintaining order and balance while also being apart of Starfleet.  I simply don’t know what good it’ll do in the long run.”

“It’ll be interesting at least.”

“That it will be.” He nodded.  “I just hope that we’re done in time.”

“I hope so too.”

***

“Kiyel, how soon till you make it to Starbase 185?” A voice asked over the coms.

“Soon sir.  We have a couple days worth of space to traverse.”

“I do hate that solids take so long to travel through space....” Another voice came on the coms.

“Yes ma’am.” Kiyel nodded before the line went dead.

“You know they’re cranky because they’re going to be so far from the great link.” Another male Vorta looked at Kiyel.

“Listen Eirirn.  We’re a new batch of Vorta, given a little less of the reverence for the Founders, but we still rely on them for our cloning process.  So... maybe not aggravate your mistress.” He glanced at Eirirn.

“Giyh is just missing the home world.  Iakkn is the one I’m worried about.  Your master is all kinds of aggravated at this assignment.”

“Maybe so.  But when Odo himself sends a diplomat as head Founder, he kind of speaks for the entire great link.”

“Maybe so.” Eirirn shrugged.  “But he still doesn’t like this.”

“I’m aware.  Believe me.  I’m aware.” Kiyel sighed.


	5. Eventful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entering Romulan space has been quiet and uneventful. But life aboard has not been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not entirely sure where this is all going. This one kind of just gets written as I go along. I’m not even sure how many chapters it’ll get. I’m enjoying the research and my muse seems to be feeding off of this story for now. So we’ll see.

“You really don’t need to fuss this much.” Icheb laid down on the bed, his uniform hanging up and his comfortable cloths laying beside him as he lay on the bed in the nude looking up at q who was trying to be as supportive as he possibly could.   
  
“Is it cool enough, I know Brunali men get over heated while they’re pregnant.” q made to turn towards the environmental controls again.   
  
“q.” Icheb sighed, and reached his hand out, his fiancée stopping and coming to him.  “Just lay with me?”   
  
“Sure.” q smiled, his cloths flashing off as he laid down beside Icheb.  Touching Icheb’s skin was like having his own personal space heater in bed.   
  
“I’ve got the duty roster set up between the ships and submitted to both Captain Chakotay and Admiral Janeway.  I also have been looking at the specs for the improvements for the cargo bay.  Seven says it’s going nicely.”   
  
“Axum doing okay after realizing she was married?” q asked quietly.   
  
“He’s adapting.  Twelve is having a hard time.  But I have the Doctor looking into genetic and hormone therapies that might help.  We haven’t told Twelve yet.”   
  
“Probably for the best.” q’s hand instinctively went to Icheb’s belly, the large curve to it very noticeable as of late.   
  
“I’m glad the maternity uniforms have come in.” Icheb sighed.  “It’s... strange to have nothing that fits.” He tried to smile but it felt flat a little.   
  
“Still feeling the hormone imbalance?”   
  
“Yes.” Icheb nodded.  He’d become aware of the imbalance the last few days since he’d left sick bay.  He could go from perfectly happy to trembling with fear or sobbing in near hysterics with sorrow.  “I’m not sure why it bothers me.” He’d taken the approach of trying to ignore it for about a day before q took him back to the Doctor and had him explain to Icheb that it was better to talk it out when he had these feelings.   
  
“I can always snap them bigger.” q smiled.  “But you know you’re beautiful to me no mater what right?” He leaned in and kissed Icheb who smiled.   
  
“I know.” He smiled as they parted.  “It’s why I said yes to marriage with you.  Because no mater what, I think our love is beyond mutual.” He looked at the ring he hardly ever took off.   
  
“I’m glad.” q smiled.  “I’m supposed to pick a uniform for work.” q sighed.  “Honestly I’m not even sure what sort of fashion to go with.  I don’t think I could pull off any of the Tellaxian’s bright prints.”   
  
“Maybe something in Q fashion?” Icheb tried to remember some of what he’d seen while in the Continuum while on one of their trips through space.   
  
“Maybe.  We mostly do red’s, black’s, and white’s.” q nodded.  “Hum...” He snapped but nothing happened.  “Be right back.” He kissed Icheb’s nose and crawled out of bed for his pad and a stylist before laying back down and snuggling close to Icheb.  “Maybe if I took the basic design for a Starfleet uniform and gave it a bit of a Q flare...” He started drawing.   
  
“Good idea.  I want you to wear something that makes you comfortable and happy.  It matters to me.” Icheb rested a hand on q’s knee.   
  
“Thank you.” q put his hand on Icheb’s, lightly touching him.  They’d discovered Icheb could go from craving any connection physically to being repulsed by the tiniest of touches.  It had to do with the hormones adjusting the nerves in his skin, it was a process they’d noticed during sex one night, right after the dermal fold that q had discovered running the length of the space behind Icheb’s testicles, almost to his ass, had started developing into his ekthian passage.  Icheb had been embarrassed to discover how sensitive that area was as it developed more fully.  But q delighted in nibbling, licking, and even lightly tracing his fingers around the passage.  They hadn’t explored too deeply because they were both a little leery of running into Borg shields in the middle of sex.  But q had been stimulating the passage recently when Icheb simply stopped being in the mood for sex and had suddenly wanted to be as far away from him as possible.   
  
Thankfully the database had informed them that the tenderness and ache in Icheb’s nerves that made him shift like that to touch, would lesson as the passage fully developed, and would go away entirely once his ekthian passage was fully formed.  He’d have their child, keep his passage, and never have to worry about this dull full body ache that he felt off and on now.  B’Elanna had been by to see him yesterday and they’d talked for hours about pregnancy.  She’d told him about the extreme mood swings of Klingon births, and he’d shared his fears about lactation.  Over all it was nice to have someone there who understood what it was like to carry a new life inside themselves.   
  
“You okay?” q asked after a bit with Icheb starring off into space.   
  
“Just thinking about a project that’s been on the back of my mind the last few months.” He waved it away.   
  
“Care to share?” q looked over at Icheb.   
  
“You know about the way the Collective folds and joins other personalities into each drone as they’re assimilated, to help bond each crew to one another.”   
  
“Yeah.  I remember hearing about how Seven was being consumed by the vinculum and each personality was expressing itself.”   
  
“I’ve been wondering if I could find a safe way to release them with out making the same situation happen to myself.” He looked at q.  “I have a half dozen extra personalities in me from my time in the maturation chamber.  I’m sure there has to be a way...” Icheb frowned.   
  
“You’ll think of it.”   
  
“I might have...” Icheb bit his lip.   
  
“I’m curious.” q sat up.   
  
“The new holo emitters for the Doctor’s quarters so he can have his family running too made me think about adapting holo emitters to work with my Borg implants so that those folded into me can kind of have a body of their own.”   
  
“It’s worth testing.  But nothing majorly stressful till after the baby please?” q reached out and Icheb held his hand.   
  
“I promise not to do anything stressful until after the birth of our son.” Icheb smiled back.   
  


***

  
  
“I’m kind of shocked we didn’t think of this before.” Tom was standing with the Doctor looking at their handy work having laid down almost an entire holodeck’s worth of emitters with back up power supplies and their own internal memory systems all across the floor and in the corners of every room.  “I mean if we’re going to treat you like you’re one of us, we should have given you a room ages ago.”   
  
“It was just prudent to leave me to sickbay until now.” The Doctor nodded.  “But... it’ll be nice to have a place that’s just mine.”   
  
“Given any thoughts on how you’ll decorate?” B’Elanna was wiring in the last relay across the room.   
  
“I’m thinking some of the house you saw from my old program, and some of the things I liked from my apartment on Tykon.” The Doctor smiled.   
  
“You know, you left a lot of details out of that report.” B’Elanna glanced at him.   
  
“I know.” The Doctor nodded.  “Most of what I left out was in my personal log and the Admiral got to see that so I feel that I informed who I needed to.” He looked away.   
  
“And we’re not even going to get a hint before you bring your family online?” Tom tilted his head.   
  
“Oh they’re already online.” The Doctor went to the table and picked up a data storage node.  “I set this up to effectively allow their programs to integrate and run so I could test the viability of their matrices.  So far no glitches.  And the biological data is being supported just fine.” He smiled.   
  
“So...” B’Elanna grinned.  “Do you want us to start using your name?”   
  
“Your name?” Tom frowned.  “You picked?”   
  
“I had to.  I registered the quarters under my name.” The Doctor smiled.   
  
“And you looked at the registration didn’t you?” Tom turned to B’Elanna.   
  
“Yep.” She smirked.  “I knew he’d have to either pick a name or register under his file name.  And I was happy to see he picked a name, finally.” She shot him a look that said she was just teasing him.   
  
“So what is it?”   
  
“It’s the name I went by on Tykon.  Aeson Tabreez.” The Doctor smiled.  “I’m fine with Doc or Aeson.” He nodded.  “But officially, the duty logs record the Chief Medical Officer of the Starship Voyager as Aeson Tabreez.” He smiled.  “So there’s no changing it now.”   
  
“That’s a big step Doc.” Tom crossed his arms.   
  
“So is committing to a family.  But Mareeza and I were just this side of being married on Tykon.  And Jason was as much my son as Jeffery is.  So I’m jumping into the deep end with independent autonomous family members.” He looked at the data storage box.  “Once they’re initialized out here, no tweaks can be made.  They’re completely whom ever their going to become.  I’ve locked out any edits to anything outside of routine check ups and diagnostics as well as repair work.” He looked up at his friends.  “I’m going to have no control over them.”   
  
“Good idea.” B’Elanna nodded.  “Is Jeffery how we left him?”   
  
“Yes.  I left in the memories of his sister and her death.  And the upgrades you made to make him more life like are still in there, along with a copy of the learning and growth programs I invented for myself.”   
  
“Good.” B’Elanna patted him on the back.  “You’ll be all the better for it, so will he.” She stretched.  “Have you thought about giving them access to your mobile emitter?”   
  
“Starfleet scanned it and with a great deal of difficulty were able to make one other emitter for me and one for them to study.” He opened a small box.  “Mareeza and I can attend gatherings.  The children will be able to go to school.  And if I can get our Chief Engineer to look at the specs, I might be able to get an additional two replicated...” He handed her the isolinear chip.   
  
“I make no promises.  But I’ll try.” She took it and smiled.  “So that should do it.  You ready to move in?”   
  
“Yes.” The Doctor went to the panel.  “Computer, please beam in items in storage locker J-11c, Authorization Tabreez Alpha Nine.” A large storage container was beamed in.   
  
“I didn’t know you had luggage.” Tom blinked.   
  
“It’s some of the things I’ve traded for, bought, designed, and out right replicated over the years.” He smiled.  “Computer, transfer program Tabreez 1 from data storage to Tabreez hologrid and run program.” With a beep the data storage box shut off, and three holograms appeared in the middle of the room.  Jeffery was standing there.  His cloths still looking like Klingon fashion, but his hair much more tamed.  Beside him was a tall brunette woman with the Tykonian forehead divot and beside her a small boy with a matching divot.  His eyes were blue and big as he looked around, holding his mother’s hand.   
  
“Aeson.” Mareeza smiled as she came forwards and hugged him.   
  
“Kal’shaw.” He whispered as he stroked her cheek before kissing her.  “Mareeza, I’d like you to meet my friends Tom Paris and his wife B’Elanna Paris.”   
  
“Welcome to our home.” Mareeza smiled as she took their hands and shook them.   
  
“You two got married?” Jeffery looked at them.  “It suits you.” He smiled.  “Hey Jason, you want to pick out bedrooms?” Jason looked up at him and reached up, so Jeffery picked him up and waved as he walked into the other rooms.   
  
“He seems... at ease.” Tom blinked.   
  
“It’s probably because Aeson has been running our program together for a few days.  Giving us time to bond with each other and him when he’s off duty.  It’s given us a chance to get a better footing.  We both figured with a blended family it would take time.”   
  
“Jeffery misses his sister but it helps him be protective of Jason.” The Doctor smiled softly.  “And I told him if the transition went smoothly I’d give him access to the mobile emitter while I’m off duty this week so he could explore the ship.”   
  
“The way to any teen’s heart.  Freedom.” Tom nodded.  “He shouldn’t have too much trouble making friends.  I hear we’re going to have a Klingon temple in the new ship.”   
  
“Yep.  You better believe we’re going to start going.” B’Elanna smiled at Tom.  “I want our daughter to know about the scrolls and about the rites.  And about her honor.  Because between the two of us and the things we’ve done and the people we’ve saved, we’ve put a lot of honor into the House of Paris.” She kissed him.   
  
“The House of Paris?” He raised an eyebrow.   
  
“I registered it while I was on the homeworld.” She grinned.  “Even got us our own family dagger.”   
  
“You’ll have to show me the design.  I’ve started studying them so I could understand some of what Jeffery’s been saying about the history of the Empire.” The Doctor nodded.   
  
“I’m still a little behind on my alpha quadrant species.” Mareeza blushed.  “You’re Klingon?” She looked at B’Elanna.   
  
“Half.  My mother was Klingon.  My father was human.”   
  
“I’d be interested in seeing what your people’s religion is like.” Mareeza nodded.  “On Tykon we had mostly the worship of the Sky Ship and the Orthodoxy who believed the Sky Ship was the devil.” She rolled her eyes.  “I grew up in a Sky Ship house hold and only sort of believed there were people aboard Voyager.  Aeson would talk about the people aboard... about their lives.... late at night when it was just the two of us looking up at the ship.” She smiled.  “It helped me believe that there were people like us who lived on the ship stuck above us.  I never dreamed I’d be living on it.”   
  
“I’m curious how Tykonian culture’s changed since we left.” Tom frowned.   
  
“I hadn’t thought of that.” B’Elanna blinked a Mareeza.   
  
“Oh I’d imagine it’s changed a great deal.  Since every second out here in natural space time is one day on Tykon... I’d imagine the people have changed a great deal.  Maybe they have become space fairing.  Maybe they accepted their lot in life and decided to remain on the planet.  I hope we find out.” She smiled.   
  
“I checked, our current route will take us near enough to Tykon to send a message.  But outside their temporal folds so that they don’t end up stuck with us in their skies again.” The Doctor gestured to the seats and everyone moved over to sit down.  “I kind of hope to get a hold of some of the cooking spices when we go back.” The Doctor smiled.   
  
“You ate?” Tom frowned.   
  
“I’m capable of tasting food and enjoying it.  I usually use photonic foods so that I don’t waste food on the ship when in social situations.  But I have a built in decompiler like a replicator for my stomach.  It breaks down the food into a compressed mater I can transfer into the mater buffer of the replicators.  It helps restock the replicators when I came back from three years on Tykon.”   
  
“And he misses my soup.” Mareeza smiled.  “Not that I could cook all that great.  About the only thing I could make was Na’tha.”   
  
“Na’tha?” Tom looked at the Doctor.   
  
“It’s kind of a liquid version of Hasparat but hotter.” The Doctor chuckled.   
  
“How can you make hotter Hasparat?” B’Elanna frowned.  “The Bajorans that I met made it so hot it could have melted through the hull of a ship if they tried.”   
  
“It’s made with fire fruit.  We used to offer it to one of our ancient gods.  And we ate it too.  Then Voyager arrived as we were putting it on the alter of the other god.  So legend says that we assumed that Voyager wanted the fire fruit all to itself.  So for a long time we refused to eat it because it was seen as a blasphemy and bad luck.  It took a long time for us to get to a place where we could eat the fire fruit again after we started, because we’d lost our tolerance to it.” She chuckled.  “But it helps regulate certain enzymes in our brains, so over the last few generations we had come to be able to eat it with ease.”   
  
“Have you tried programming it into the replicator?” B’Elanna looked to the Doctor.   
  
“Yes, but I never seem to get the taste right.  I took medical scans of it of course, and a biochemical analysis of course, but it just... doesn’t turn out right.”   
  
“We get to Tykon space I’ll see if I can get some seeds so we can grow some of them in the hydroponics bay.  Maybe you’re friends will like to try it.” Mareeza smiled.  “At any rate, we were starting to reach out of our mystified state about the sky ship when I was living on Tykon.  I don’t know how they were by the time you left.”   
  
“So you’re... aware...” Tom started.   
  
“That I’m a hologram based on the person I was when Aeson knew me?  Yes.  I’m also aware he scanned my brain and programmed it into a part of his matrix so he could build a copy of me to live with in normal time.  I’m fine with it.” She shrugged.  “I wont lie though.  It takes some getting used to.  I feel... faster some how.”   
  
“It’s probably the computer compensating for our brains and...” She put her fingers to his lips.   
  
“Darling, sometimes, it’s okay just to accept that I’m feeling something and not give a medical reason behind it.” She grinned.   
  
“Of course.” He smiled.   
  


***

  
  
“How’s the briefing going?” Janeway was packing some of her meager items into a box as Chakotay walked in with his pad in hand.   
  
“Just reading up on the replication entity the Enterprise encountered.”   
  
“Fascinating isn’t it?  The power to perfectly replicate anything it chooses from what it can see, and all it really wanted was a companion.”   
  
“Makes me wonder about how it got there, how it got to be the only one of it’s kind there.”   
  
“Just a taste of some of the mysteries we missed out on while we were away.” Janeway smiled, picking up her coffee to sip it.   
  
“I’m also interested in the way it replicated life forms so easily.  Not to mention sharing sensations between replicants.”   
  
“From what I’m given to understand those who were duplicated shared one mind in multiple bodies.” Janeway sat back.  “I wonder if it’s anything like being in the collective?”   
  
“I doubt it.” Chakotay sat in his new chair.  “From what I remember it was an endless touch of hundreds of minds, not just your own stretched out.” He shrugged.   
  
“True enough.” Janeway smiled.  “Given any thought to your appointments?”   
  
“I’m moving Tuvok to first officer.”   
  
“A fine choice.” Janeway nodded.   
  
“Still trying to find someone who meets our expectations for Tactical.”   
  
“Have you thought about anyone from the incoming crew?” She looked at him seriously for a moment.   
  
“Maybe.  I’m trying to get a feel for them from their records.  But so far nothing that’s sticking.  I kind of want to have someone who has faced some of what we have on the tactical array.”   
  
“I know what you mean.  If they’ve faced it then they know what to use and when to use it.  It’s why I had trouble when we were stuck out there alone trying to move people up in the ranks and fill the spots that needed to be filled.”   
  
“It’s hard to move the family around.”   
  
“I feel the same way.” Chakotay smiled at Janeway.  “But things are changing.  Several of the crew transferred off.  I was shocked some of the Maquis went back to Starfleet.”   
  
“Coming home and finding out that not only is the Maquis over, but that the Cardassians were in another war that decimated their forces and they lost most of the systems they attempted to annex to the cost of their war with the Alpha Quadrant by backing the dominion... it was enough to let most of us feel like we’d accomplished what we’d joined the Maquis for.” Chakotay started unpacking a small box.   
  
“I wish it hadn’t cost so many good people’s blood to bring the Maquis to peace.” Janeway shook her head.  “Hearing how they exterminated most of the Maquis in the Bad Lands...” Janeway looked at Chakotay.  “All I could think about was what if we hadn’t gone after you, what if we hadn’t been taken by the Caretaker.  What if that had been you... any of you...” She sighed.   
  
“Hard to imagine we’d be grateful for being trapped in the Delta Quadrant isn’t it?”   
  
“Exactly.” Janeway smiled softly.   
  
“It’s just strange to think that I owe my being alive to the Caretaker’s guilt over the Ocampa.”   
  
“It feels surreal to be heading back.” Janeway looked out the window.   
  
“We spent years leaving only to go back.” Chakotay chuckled.  “But this time we’re better equipped, we know what we’re getting involved with.  And we have the means to come home.”   
  
“It’s going to be-”   
  
“Captain.” A voice came over the coms.   
  
“Captain here.” Chakotay answered.   
  
“We’ve reached Vendor and we’re being sent orbit information.”   
  
“I’ll be there in a minute.” Chakotay stood up.  “Chakotay out.” He turned to Janeway.  “No rest for the wicked.” He smirked.   
  
“Go get’em.” She waved him off chuckling at the whole situation.  A part of her missed rushing out there, but a bigger part was happy not to have to deal with the Romulans just yet.   
  


***

  
  
“How many do we have beaming up?” Chakotay asked once he was on the bridge.   
  
“Four Starfleet cadets and four Romulan scientists.” Ensign O’sr stated as he looked at his display.  O’sr was the officer at Icheb’s station covering his shifts for now.  Chakotay nodded to the Gallamite.  The large transparent part of his skull displaying his relatively large brain as he ready.   
  
“Transporter room one, are you ready?” Chakotay asked over the coms.   
  
“Ready Captain.”   
  
“Energize.”   
  
“We have them captain.”   
  
“Have their escort take them to the meeting room.” Chakotay smiled before turning to Tuvok.  “You’ve got the bridge Tuvok.”   
  
“Yes Captain.” Tuvok nodded and sat down in the captain’s chair.   
  


***

  
  
“Captain.” Crewman Kashimuro Nozawa was standing there with the Romulans, smiling as he greeted them.   
  
“I thought Voyager was Captained by Kathryn Janeway?” One of the Romulans was standing wearing a science officer uniform.  The new style of the diagonal blue swatches above the black of her uniform and her grey shoulders only slightly trembling as she spoke to Chakotay.   
  
“She was recently promoted to Admiral and I was promoted to Captain.  Your name is?”   
  
“Takk, Sir.” She squared her shoulders.   
  
“Well Takk, we’re both new in this position.  So I’m not going to let any stress at our first meeting inform anything.  This is new territory for both our people.  And I want to see it work.”   
  
“I’m glad.” Takk relaxed.   
  
“I told you to relax.” One of the males leaning in an engineering uniform, similar to Takk’s uniform only with golden swatches.   
  
“And your name?” Chakotay smiled.   
  
“Hibr sir.”   
  
“Hibr, I have a feeling we’re going to get along, and I think you’ll both fit in well.” He smiled.  “Now we have your quarters set for deck six, you’ll be allowed free access to all duty stations and all public areas.”   
  
“A fine way to meet your own.” One of the men sitting at the table gave a harsh look.   
  
“Tulk...” Takk gave him a frown.   
  
“Tulk is it?” Chakotay looked to Takk who nodded.  “I was talking to all eight of you.”   
  
“What?” Tulk frowned.   
  
“You’re not prisoners here.  While these four are duty officers aboard ship, you’re still guests and scientists.  I’m told your work stations and your labs will be coming with the Antonia when we join up with her in a few days.  We’re traveling at warp through your space because we promised your government that we wouldn’t chart any slipstream courses through your space.” Chakotay nodded.  “Seems rude to use that technology after we promised not to.  So until your labs get here, your quarters are yours to decorate and to make personal.  And if you want you’re welcome to tour the ship and familiarize yourself with our systems and with the layout as well as get to know the rest of the crew.  This time of duty, the best place to socialize would be the mess hall.  I believe Crewman Chell is on today, so expect puns on the menu.”   
  
“Puns?” A woman sitting at the table frowned.   
  
“Humorous twists of words with dual meanings.” Hibr looked at the woman before lowering his eyes.   
  
“Thank you Hibr.” She nodded.   
  
“I don’t believe I’ve caught your name.” Chakotay turned to the woman.   
  
“I am Kiner.” She nodded her head.  “I’m lead on this project.” Her hands were folded over top one another.  “Hibr is my grandson.” She spoken with an heir of someone who had survived a lot of things, the set of her shoulders and her jaw spoke volumes.  “It was my efforts that brought our group together and we sent our children to Starfleet to further their education and to provide a brighter future then with in the shattered fragments of our empire.” She only had eyes for Chakotay.  “I worked in one of the principal labs on Romulus before the fall.  I managed to get off world before _he_ happened fully.  I was thinking about moving back when we got the information about our star.”   
  
“We opened our home on Vendor to the group.” One of the other two men sitting at the table spoke up.  “Naval and I had such a big home.  And with Sadim home on leave with his friends...”   
  
“Jorm and I moved to Vendor years ago, it helps us work on our designs.” Naval smiled at his husband.   
  
“Designs?” Chakotay blinked.   
  
“We design the new cloaking devices, not just the casing but the upgrades to the systems and over all lay outs.” Naval smiled.  “We needed the quiet of our outer system to focus on our work.”   
  
“And Tulk is a power supply engineer.” Kiner nodded towards Tulk, who simply nodded and crossed his arms.   
  
“And are you his daughter?” Chakotay looked to Takk.   
  
“His niece.” Takk smiled.  “Lunan is his daughter.” She put her hand on her cousin’s shoulder.   
  
“Happy to meet all of you.”   
  
“I think you are the first human I’ve ever believed that from.” Naval nodded.  “I believe we would like to see our quarters.”   
  
“Have their possessions been beamed aboard?” Chakotay turned to Nozawa.   
  
“Yes sir.”   
  
“Excellent, if you’ll follow me.” Chakotay stood and lead them out of the room.   
  


***

  
  
“Is Lieutenant Commander Icheb home?” Ensign O’sr stood at the door.   
  
“O’sr come on in.” q smiled an got out of his way.   
  
“Is something wrong?” Icheb sat up in bed, his off duty maternity clothing on.   
  
“No sir, just dropping off the data pad for today’s event logs and thought I’d see if you had anything for me to hand out.”   
  
“You can stand at ease.” Icheb gave a wry smile to the stiff way O’sr was standing.  He was clearly attempting to impress Icheb.  “I left them...” Suddenly Icheb had the data pads in his hand.  He glanced at q but realized too soon that it wasn’t him.   
  
“Sir?” O’sr frowned.   
  
“The baby...” Icheb put his hand down on his stomach.  “He shielded himself from the explosion, I was wondering if that meant he’d have some of his father’s powers or not.  Apparently he does.  And while I’m attached to him I have limited access apparently.” Icheb sorted through the pads and handed the right ones to O’sr.  “I’ll have to remember that.” He smiled.   
  
“You thought of any names yet sir?” O’sr smiled.   
  
“Qadir.” q commented, and Icheb looked at him.  He had been told about the recording.  Shown it once while they talked about their future.  He knew one day he’d find himself sitting in their quarters making that log entry and that it would manage to go backwards in time to the Continuum.   
  
“Going with Q names?” O’sr looked interested.   
  
“A tiny nod to where we came from.” q nodded.  “I’ve been thinking about changing my name too.”   
  
“Official records and all that?”   
  
“Something like that.”   
  
“I’ll catch you at the end of next shift.” O’sr nodded and waved before heading out.   
  
“So our son is manifesting his powers.” Icheb sighed.   
  
“Yeah.” q smiled.   
  
“You realize we’re going to have to keep an eye on him.  You attempted to assimilate all of Voyager to amuse yourself.”   
  
“I wouldn’t have...”   
  
“Really.” Icheb crossed his arms.   
  
“Fine I probably would have, but I’d have undone it.”   
  
“And that’s why I want to have a talk about our son’s powers.”   
  
“What kind of talk...” q had a feeling it wasn’t a good one.   
  
“We need to teach him to use them responsibly.”   
  
“Hopefully we do a better job then my father did.  I mean... he all but killed you to prove a point and get me to see the error of my ways.  And I’d rather not be... _that_ to my son.” q looked sick.   
  
“Your not him.” Icheb patted the bed and q sat down.   
  
“I just...”   
  
“You’re worried that he’ll have more power then you do, aren’t you?”   
  
“Yes.” q sighed.  “I’m scared that the shields protected him enough that he kept more power then the rest of the new Continuum and that all together we still wont be enough to get him to behave.”   
  
“Well let’s not borrow more trouble then we need to.” Icheb snuggled against his fiancée’s shoulder.  “I’ve been thinking.” Icheb toyed with his ring.  “I want to be married before our son is born.” He looked at q.   
  
“R-really?” q’s face split into a smile.   
  
“Really.  I think the Moral Officer should help the Captain plan it.” Icheb smiled.  “And you can dress me in Brunali formal wear.” He saw q’s eyes light up.  “And we’ll schedule it as soon as possible because if my math is close... the baby will likely come about the time we hit Starbase 185.”   
  
“That’s not so far off...” q looked outside.  “Once we get out of Romulan space we can go back to quantum slipstream and it’ll only be an hour or so at best once we’re in Federation space.”   
  
“We’re at the boarder of the Glintara sector now.” Icheb pointed to a star as they passed it.  “And there’s only a sector and a half between us and Federation space.” q blinked at him. “We’re moving at around warp 9.975, meaning it’ll take ten days in total to cross at this speed, and when we stopped at Vendor we were three days in on that ten days.  And we’re using the fourth day now.  So a little over six days and we’ll be able to use the slipstream drive.  And we’ll only be thirteen minutes away from Starbase.”   
  
“Right, planning starts in the morning.”   
  
“Good answer.” Icheb smiled.  “I’m ready for bed.”   
  
“Almost.” q smiled as he snapped and their cloths vanished.  “Better.” He snuggled in close to Icheb as he shut the lights out.   
  
“Love you.” Icheb smiled.   
  
“I love you too.”   
  


***

  
  


♪chirp♪

  
  
“Yes?” The Doctor tapped his coms.   
  
“In coming message from Starbase 185 for Chief Medical Officer of USS Voyager.”   
  
“I’ll take it in my office.” The Doctor quietly padded out of his bedroom and down the hall to where he’d set up a work station.  “Please state the nature of the medical emergency.” He sat there rubbing his eyes as someone came on the screen.   
  
“Doctor, pleasure to meet you.  My name is Rem Q'quj'un, I’m the Chief Medial Officer for Starbase 185.   I normally wouldn’t call this late, but one of your new crew members had a health scare a little bit ago and I figured I should probably give you a head’s up.”  By the coppery colored skin and slight forehead ridges, let alone the long white hair, the Doctor was pretty sure he was talking to an Efrosian.   
  
“New crew member?” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“Part of the Antonia detachment.” Rem sighed.   
  
“Oh yes.  Who was it?”   
  
“Officer Duul Kola.  I figured it’d be best to send his medical files with him, but also to give you some form of warning, that kind I wish I’d gotten before he showed up here.” The Efrosian doctor looked haggered.   
  
“What’s the matter with Mr. Kola?”   
  
“He’s suffering from a genetic disorder.  Have you heard of Chimera Syndrome?”   
  
“I thought that only affected dissimilar hybrid species?” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“His father was Andorian, his mother was Vulcan.”   
  
“That’d do it.  Between the Andorian insectoid genome and their love of the cold, and the Vulcan’s tolerances and heated blood... I can only imagine some of what he goes through, but how has he lived this long if he has Chimera Syndrome?”   
  
“Remarkable medical care.  He’s also designed an enzyme to help stabilize his condition.  I’m told he came out of his maturation cocoon at roughly the same point as when his blood first boiled.  Beyond that he’d had... an unorthodox childhood.”   
  
“I can imagine.”   
  
“You really can’t.  He has the emotional suppression organs, but they’re not as... developed.  He’s not as boisterous as a typical Andorian but he’s not as reserved as a typical Vulcan.  Which between his complextion and his temperament he’s likely to stand out long before he opens his mouth.”   
  
“His complextion?”   
  
“While Andorian males are typically blue and Vulcan males would have a more olive complextion... Duul is almost teal in color.  He possesses both blue, green, and blue-green blood cells.”   
  
“Blue-green?” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“I asked the same thing.  They’re a synthetic blood cell he’s been injecting himself with since he was eleven.  They have the characteristics of both blue and green cells and they allow for his body to communicate across the extremes of his biology.  He possess both Andorian antennas, and Vulcan ears.  But he also has a complicated cardiovascular system.”   
  
“I’d imagine.  Vulcans have larger hearts then Andorians.  And they’re located in totally different parts of the body.”   
  
“He has a hybridized heart.  It has six chambers instead of the typical four.  It’s also elongated to attach at both locations that you’d see in either species.”   
  
“And his lungs?”   
  
“Another set of hybrid.  He has both Vulcan lungs and a second set of booked lungs similar to an Andorian’s.”   
  
“Between the extended heart and the advanced lungs, I would assume he’s more prone to breathing problems and complications to his heart beat?”   
  
“And you’d be correct.  He has an implanted stabilizer to help his heart stay in rhythm and has a medical treatment for his breathing to help keep it clear.”   
  
“How does he... I mean...” The Doctor blushed.  “To which side does his _biological_ nature take after?”   
  
“Well that’s where things get a tiny bit complicated.”   
  
“More complicated then his other systems?”   
  
“Yes.  With Andorians you have the three sub races and the four genders to think about.” The other doctor sighed.  “He lucked out in being born a Thaan instead of a Chan.  I can only imagine the hell that a more androgynous sex would have played with his Vulcan reproductive systems.” He seemed to blush.  “He possesses a hybrid sex organ, that appears to take after the Vulcan side of his heritage in size but his Andorian heritage in shape.”   
  
“Understandable.”   
  
“And as for the Pon Farr... he has the drive every seven years like the Vulcans... but he’s capable of copulation and expressing his sexual desires as often as an Andorian can...”   
  
“That... might be problematic... I’m given to understand Andorians have a more... robust sex drive then most species.”   
  
“Yes.  He also needs to be careful when choosing his sexual partners.” He looked off screen and glared slightly.  “Part of why he’s in here is because he choose to try to sleep with a Nausicaan.”   
  
“But... Nausicaan sexual organs are covered in spines that release a nuero-toxin that while not fatal to other species...”   
  
“In their own race it sparks arousal to be injected by nuero-toxins.  In most other races it just causes a bad rash.  Andorians have a natural immunity via their exoskeleton most of the time.  But where he takes after his Vulcan heritage, Mr. Kola was unprotected and discovered he is acutely allergic to their nuero-toxin.”   
  
“How bad is it?”   
  
“Well, the internal distress to his system should be repaired by the time you dock with us.  But the external problem will take a bit longer to alleviate.”   
  
“External problems?”   
  
“His genitals are swollen to roughly twice their normal size due to the direct penetration of their tissues with the spines.”   
  
“I see.” The Doctor winced, his mind racing to how the patient was even able to walk after something like that.   
  
“I’m going to see how his movement is and if he’s fine for the most part I’ll clear him for light duty pending your fully look at his history and actually meet him.”   
  
“That much of a headache?” The Doctor smiled.   
  
“You have no idea.”   
  
“I have Lieutenant Paris.  Believe me, I know what you’re going through.”   
  
“The Admiral’s boy?”   
  
“The very same.”   
  
“Saw him once on one of my early posts.  Bit of a wild streak...”   
  
“He’s mellowed with family life.  But he still has the odd occurrence that makes me question humanity’s ability to live in space.”   
  
“Ah, yes.  What would life be as a Doctor with out a patient that made your life hell and made you question the limits of any body to preform any task.”   
  
“I couldn’t agree more.”   
  
“Keep in touch.  I want to hear how Mr. Kola turns out.”   
  
“I will.” The Doctor smiled as they ended the connection.  Then he thought about Mr. Kola.  “Right... first thing in the morning I start a refresher course on the inter species mating pamphlet.” The Doctor sighed, closing down his work station and wandering back to bed, pausing to check on his sons who were fast asleep, and going back to his bedroom where his wife lay peacefully asleep.  The blessing of being photonic.  The computer had only woken him up to inform him of the message, and hadn’t disrupted any of the other’s sleep patterns.  He’d have to remember to thank Commander Data when he was reconstituted for sharing his dream program with the photonic and non biological members of Starfleet.  He couldn’t imagine how it must feel to sacrifice yourself twice for the crew like that.  First by ensuring the Enterprise could get out of the blast radius in Romulan space, and now to save his ship and crew from the Sakurazaka’s explosion.   
  
He wondered if any of them were joining the expedition to the Delta Quadrant.  The Sakurazaka had 200 souls aboard, not counting the non biological crew.  And it’s AI Captain and Data had been lost in the explosion that the AI Captain had set to prevent his time displaced ship from breaking the temporal prime directive.   He assumed they were from far enough in the future that they were safe for now from a visit from Captain Braxton, as the ship was clearly from a future even farther out then his time frame.  The Doctor felt for Captain La Forge.  The Doctor had consulted on building the holomatrix with Reg and the Captain for Mr. Data’s constructs.  The Doctor walked over to the wall and tapped the data back up recorder and started a copy of his family.  He had it set to record a back up every time one of them slept to keep the back up copies of them up to date.  Nodding to himself, feeling assured they were saved, he tucked himself back into sleep and with a click was back in his dreams of the Tykonian opera house.   
  


***

  
  
“Damn it.” A human engineer cursed as he looked at another section of the ship glowing like it was covered in a shimmering liquid.   
  
“What’s the matter?”   
  
“I really wish they’d stop doing this.” He pointed to the new section forming.   
  
“Yeah, you can’t help it.  The Q are used to snapping their fingers and things are built from the atoms up.  This is nerve wracking for them just like it is us.”   
  
“Computer how much have the new Continuum added to the Antonia now?”   
  
“Approximately two new decks and seven new lab spaces have been added.”   
  
“Please begin indexing and cataloging all the new space.” He sighed heavily.  “At this rate we’ll arrive with a whole new ship at the Starbase.”   
  
“I’ll admit it’s outside the range of what we’re used to.” The woman he was speaking to nodded.   
  
“You know you sound an awful lot like Rolh?” He narrowed his eyes.   
  
“I may have been spending time with our new counselor...” She smiled.   
  
“You realize he’s an El-Aurian right?” He sighed.   
  
“No, you mean the being nearly seven hundred years old and more then slightly empathic didn’t give it away.” She snorted as she rolled her eyes.   
  
“I just mean...”   
  
“You mean you’re jealous and you’re worried.  Listen.  I like spending time with Rolh.  He likes to listen.  I needed to talk.  But I don’t think I’m even in the running for his affections.”   
  
“What does that mean?”   
  
“I think his heart lays elsewhere and far from here.” She shrugged.  “And looks like there’s another one.” She pointed as more of the ship seemed to appear and reorganize itself.   
  
“Damn it.  At this rate it’ll take forever just to know what we’ve got.”   
  
“And it’ll keep you too busy to worry about me talking with Rolh.” She grinned as she walked away to go back to her station.   
  


***

  
  
Else where, unbeknownst to anyone else, in a part of the Delta Quadrant, a ripple formed in space, resulting in a fun house mirror effect of shifting reflections and movement in open space.  And in the heart of that chaotic movement, reflections of the USS Voyager began to appear and flicker in and out of existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah don't get used to this kind of length.


	6. Wedding Bells and Spacial Chimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our plucky little crew is almost out of Romulan space, and it’s quickly becoming time for two important members of their little family to get married. But trouble is brewing across time and space, trouble that has Voyager written all over it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recently asked one of my newer friends to read this and give me his thoughts on the first 5 chapters. I was worried because I didn’t want to drop my friend into a sex filled novel of my creation and realized that while there’s been nudity and hints about sex, there hasn’t actually been a sex scene. And I’m sitting here going... how the hell did I write a story that feels more like actual episodes of Voyager and it didn’t contain an explicit sex scene? So that was rattling around in my head. It just... boggles my mind that that happened.
> 
> Also, if you play Star Trek Online, you’ll get some references, and you’re likely to find a few things that don’t entirely fit into that narrative. I’m taking aspects and some creative liberties. You’ll see what I mean.

“Bridge to Captain Ducane.” A harsh voice came across the coms in a dark room, accompanied with a deep and heavy sigh.   
  
“I’m here.  What is it bridge?”   
  
“We have a situation you have to see.”   
  
“I’m on my way.” Juel Ducane stood up from his bed and started dressing in his uniform.  He’d only just come off duty an hour ago.  And it’d been a long day of patrolling the Delta Quadrant for temporal anomalies.  He was beginning to dread the Krenim as much as Braxton had Voyager’s name.  Once in his quilted command uniform, he headed towards the bridge, one short walk down the hall to the turbo lift and one deck up he was on the bridge of his ship, the USS Relativity.  “What is it Vax?” Ducane asked his first officer, a large reptilian looking humanoid wearing a similar uniform to his, only with a large lump on his back to hold his wings.   
  
“We’re not sure.  At best guess it is some sort of temporal flexture, we’re seeing moments from various non existent and dormant time lines.  As well as unrealized realities bleeding through as visual echos and sensor ghosts.”   
  
“Why did you...”   
  
“Because of that Captain.” Vax pointed as Voyager appeared in one of the sections of the vast disruption to space time.  It looked like shattering glass and rippling water endlessly falling in and out of one another infinitely.   
  
“How large is the disruption?”   
  
“Over two hundred sectors in our time frame.  It seems to be originating from the year 2381, we’re attempting to get a fix on the star date.  But with the conflicting temporal echos of multiple Voyagers from at least seventeen distinct time lines we’re unable to get a perfect lock.”   
  
“Project Full Circle began in 2381.” Ducane looked at the sheer size of the disruption.  “Can you narrow down the spacial location for me?”   
  
“It’s not making it easy...” Vax frowned as he worked on his duty station.  “Captain I think we can narrow it’s point of origin down to a sector of space near the Cuvomb home world.”   
  
“The Cuvomb... they were one of the first races Voyager interacted with when they returned to the Delta Quadrant, they don’t possess temporal technology.”   
  
“Correct sir.  But there have been a few shifts in the region in that time frame.  One of which is the closing of the Continuum by Quintin or q jr.”   
  
“Scan for trace indicators and let me know if this.” The ship shook.   
  
“The disruption has spread to over three hundred sectors sir.” Vax looked worried.  “The internal shattering of time has reached nearly 40,000 light years in every direction inside the disruption.  We’re reading forty three distinct time lines now.  Voyager is appearing in more of them.  If we can... some how intercept them.  Prevent them from entering this region...” Vax looked up at Ducane.   
  
“I want all solutions on my desk in the next forty minutes.  After that I’ll decide what to do.  Voyager needs to make contact with the Cuvomb on schedule, but if we can close this rift or determine how it started... we might be able to close it before they get there.”   
  
“Sir...” Another crewman pointed and the bridge crew looked where he zoomed in the sector on the screen.  “The Relativity...”   
  
“Some some of the unrealized time frames have us physically entering the flexture to intervene.  Study their movements, determine which of your plans they are attempting.  That’ll help us narrow down which ones will work.  Any actions taken in an unrealized time frame indicates that they can not occur inside our space time.”   
  
“Understood sir.”   
  
“And Vax?”   
  
“Yes sir?”   
  
“If it gets bigger move us a healthy distance away.  I don’t want to get caught in... _that_ unless we have to.”   
  
“Yes sir.”   
  


***

  
  
“Are you sure these words are right?” Janeway frowned as she looked at the pad she’d taken from q as they walked through the corridor.  Her uniform the same as always except her extra pip, a stark contrast to his new uniform.  A loose shirt that seemed to fade like a sunset starting at a deep maroon by his neck and almost a golden rod by his hips over which he wore a dark wine colored vest, off set with dark navy blue pants that agreed with him.  She wasn’t sure why he’d picked something like that, but she could tell by the movement of the fabric that it hid something underneath.  She wondered if he was wearing something similar to the new Starfleet uniforms, they looked the same, until someone took a phaser shot at you, that’s when you noticed the nearly weightless body armor.  They’d been slowly phasing them in over the last few months.  Technology gleamed from the Jenolan sphere, it’d advanced their technology level by a great deal in just the last couple of years.  The Ablative Hull armor that Admiral Janeway had given them had been enhanced with technology from the Jenolan sphere and now was capable of generating an armor comprised of materials that would be more common on an Iconian vessel.  Janeway mentally shook herself to focus in on what q was saying.   
  
“Well the Q don’t have wedding vows per say.  We simply find a mate, decide to be mates, and we are.  It’s kind of anticlimactic.  But long ago we did have words.  Words that meant a great deal to us.” q blushed slightly.   
  
“And the Brunali side of things?” Janeway raised an eyebrow.   
  
“The Brunali are a deeply spiritual people.  It’s their connection to ancestral things, like their land and their heritage, that drives them to stay on their home world.  It’s also traditional to give of one’s family ancestors to the family you’re marrying into.  Since my family is all in the Continuum sealed away except for you, I’m effectively marrying into Icheb’s family.  Which legally consists of Seven and Chakotay, not to mention Twelve.”   
  
“And he’s going to be in the ceremony as well?” Janeway went back to skimming the outline he’d given her.   
  
“Yes.  The three of them stand up with us, they have their words to say.  And it’s up to them to accept my offering.” He smiled.   
  
“What are you offering up, this doesn’t say?” She looked up from the pad.   
  
“A couple things.” q reached into a pocket in his vest and pulled out a shimmering vial of blue and green energy.  “I’m offering the memories of Seven’s childhood.” He saw Janeway stop stock still as she looked at the vial.  “I had time to plan.” He blushed.  “For Chakotay, I’m offering an artifact that has significance to the Q.” He continued.  “For Twelve, I have two offerings.  The first everyone will see at the wedding, bones of one of my ancestors for him to keep in trust.  And the other offering will be made in private.”   
  
“Keeping secrets again?” She smiled.   
  
“No.  I worked hard to do something I hope he can accept.  I don’t know if he will.  But so long as he accepts the bones, we should be covered.” q nodded.   
  
“And these words... they’re a mixture of the Q’s sacred words?”   
  
“And the Brunali’s customs.  It’ll make sense when you see us in our wedding cloths and everything comes together.”   
  
“I hope so.” She smiled.  “So how’s the lucky man?”   
  
“He’s stir crazy.  Between the baby’s powers manifesting and his light duty which keeps him mostly either in our quarters or in the mess hall... he’s getting a little cranky.”   
  
“It’s to be expected.  In humans women have been known to become desperate to get the child out of them in the final weeks leading up to the big day.”   
  
“Yeah.  Icheb says he’s pretty sure he’s going to deliver our son by the time we reach the Starbase.”   
  
“How’s he so sure?” She asked with a slight frown.   
  
“Borg implants feeding him very precise data about the baby, and the communication between him and the unborn child.” q shrugged.   
  
“Communication?” Janeway stopped him, her hand on his arm.   
  
“Yeah, Brunali have a semi telepathic bond to their children when they’re in the womb.  The Q have something similar.  It’s making for an interesting situation.  He’s been trying to instill a sense of restraint in our son.” q smiled.  “I wished him the best of luck with that.  I mean, we both know what I was like as a child.  I’m sort of hoping that Icheb’s sense of obedience rubs off on our son.” He sighed.  “Because with out my full powers I’m not a 100% sure I can keep up with him.”   
  
“Well if it’s puts your mind at ease, your father had his powers and he couldn’t keep up with you.  He had no idea what he was doing most of the time.  Lots of guess work and misunderstandings.”   
  
“That does help Admiral.” He smiled, wistful.  “It’s hard to think of the fact that not so long ago he was going through this with me.”   
  
“I’ve been meaning to ask, how are you adjusting to a more linear sense of time?”   
  
“It’s been interesting.  I’m used to just popping off to other time frames or spacial locations for as long as I want, and coming back and it have only been a couple hours or a day.  It’s strange to live life entirely in sync with other beings.”   
  
“You’ve been doing a very admirable job.”   
  
“I’ve had tasks to focus on.  The wedding, prepping for the work on the Antonia.  And trying to keep an eye on Icheb with out being over protective or hovering too much.”   
  
“A delicate fine line to walk.” Janeway nodded, sipping her coffee she was carrying with her.  “So about my outfit...”   
  


***

  
  
“Admiral Paris, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Geordi La Forge was sitting in the hospitality sweet that was set up to receive visiting Captains and Admirals.   
  
“At ease Captain La Forge.” Admiral Paris smiled.  “I wasn’t really in the neighborhood but since my son, daughter-in-law, and grand daughter are all headed off to the Delta Quadrant for a while I figured I’d take advantage of the strategic gateways and take a lay over here before getting a gateway to Starbase 185.  I wanted to surprise them with a last goodbye.” He smiled softly.  “How are things on the Enterprise?”   
  
“Integrating the Sakurazaka’s crew into the Enterprise’s crew has been rough going.  But they’ve made great strides in rebuilding Data’s body and integrating him into the ship’s computer again.  It’s slow going.  But it’s going.” Geordi smiled.   
  
“I’m glad.  I had the opportunity to meet him.  Before...” Admiral Paris sat down.   
  
“Oh?”   
  
“Yes.  He spoke at a conference I was at about the information we had on Voyager from our limited time talking with their Doctor.”   
  
“You know he’s the one who helped Reg and me solve Data’s holomatrix issues.”   
  
“I hadn’t heard about that.”   
  
“Yeah.  We could get Data’s voice going but every time we tried to make more then one holomatrix it crashed the system.  He figured out a means to...” Geordi frowned for a second.  “I hadn’t thought of that...” He stood up.   
  
“Thought of what?” Admiral Paris looked confused.   
  
“To solve the problem with Data’s holomatrix we created an artificial hive network that generated multiple versions of him inside a data buffer and allowed him to project out of the buffer as needed.  Theoretically the buffer would have an after image of him since we’ve not had another matrix input into it.”   
  
“Sounds like you might just have your first officer back.”   
  
“I think so.” Geordi smiled and took off at a run.   
  
“Ah to be young again.” Admiral Paris chuckled as he ordered his drink.   
  


***

  
  
“Captain Ducane.”   
  
“Yes.” Juel was sitting in his ready room.   
  
“The flexture is expanding again.  And we have a probability map.”   
  
“What’s driving it.”   
  
“There’s an 87% chance that if Voyager enters that system the flexture will expand and begin unraveling time around them.  We haven’t been able to derive what’s causing the flexture in the first place yet, but we do know that it’s feeding off of the paradox of removing Voyager from the time line.”   
  
“Can we contact Voyager in the moment?”   
  
“No sir.  Voyager is in too many shattered moments being stitched in and out of reality.  Our best bet is to aim for an earlier time frame.”   
  
“What’s their earliest moment prior to being exposed to the Flexture?”   
  
“Just as they pass Gacrux before they enter quantum slipstream, sir.”   
  
“Begin the process of attuning the temporal communications array to that time frame.  We need to get in touch with Admiral Janeway and ask for her help.”   
  
“The Janeway Effect...”   
  
“Vax, I’m aware.  But our last meeting was pleasant enough.”   
  
“Okay Captain.”   
  
“What’s our eta on getting the connection?”   
  
“A couple hours at best with all the interference.”   
  
“Understood.”   
  


***

  
  
“Hey, I was... and you’re not here.” q frowned as he looked around the first officer’s office.  “Computer where is First Officer Andrew Ellis?”   
  
“First Officer Andrew Ellis is in the First Officer’s Office.”   
  
“Uh, no he’s not.” q frowned as he looked around.  “Computer, can you scan for his life signs?”   
  
“Negative.”   
  
“Why?”   
  
“First Officer Ellis’ life signs are protected under a command level lock out.”   
  
“Who put that protection in place.”   
  
“That information is not accessible.”   
  
“Okay... same level of lock out?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“Okay.  Can it be unlocked by the Chief Moral Officer’s clearance?”   
  
“Negative.  The command level lock out is specifically been modified to lock out the Chief Moral Officer.”   
  
“And can you tell me who initiated that modification.”   
  
“Negative.  That information is also under a command level lock out.”   
  
“Okay.” q sat his pad down and pinched the bridge of his nose.  “q to Icheb.”   
  
“Icheb here...?”   
  
“Can you do me a favor and ask the computer to locate First Officer Ellis’ life signs?”   
  
“Okay.” q sat there and waited.  “q, it says it’s under a command level lock out...”   
  
“Yeah, which has been modified to lock me specifically out.  I mean I get that Ellis doesn’t like me.  A few people on the crew don’t.  I’m used to that.  I’m me.  I have my father’s rep to live down.  But the point is, why go the trouble of not only locking out his life signs but also making the computer lead me to his office when he’s not here?  And go to the trouble to specifically lock me out from being able to unlock that lock out, let alone locking out the identity of the person who locked all that out.”   
  
“Let me see if I can unlock it.”   
  
“Thank you.” q started going over his pad waiting.   
  
“q, nothing’s unlocking it.  You might try contacting Tuvok.”   
  
“He’s my next stop.  Thanks for trying.” q stood up and frowned, noticing Ellis’ com badge laying on the floor.  “Oh for the love of.” q sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.  “Computer, I’m not asking you to locate Ellis, what I am asking you to do is, if it is with in your power please send him a message, where ever he is, to tell him he left his com badge in his office and I need to speak to him.”   
  
“Message has been sent.”   
  
“Thank you.” q sat the com badge down and walked off.  He was walking down a corridor and frowned hard.  “Computer... do a level 1 scan of this corridor.”   
  
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”   
  
“Okay, thank you.” He frowned.  “q to commander Tuvok.”   
  
“Tuvok here.”   
  
“Can you do a high level sensor sweep outside the first officer’s office.  I’m not sure what’s going on but I have this... sense that something’s wrong.”   
  
“Do you know what I am looking for?”   
  
“No.  I’ve never felt this before.  It’s... something’s wrong.  I can’t put my finger on it.  It’s just... wrong.”   
  
“Unusual.  Do the Q often have sensory input from non traditional means?”   
  
“Yes.  We’re in tune to a lot of levels of reality.  What ever is wrong here just started.  I couldn’t feel it when I went in to the office, but it’s... it’s out here now.”   
  
“My scans are turning up nothing out of the ordinary.”   
  
“Mine didn’t either.  I’d keep an eye on this section.  Something’s either happening or will happen here.”   
  
“Precognition?”   
  
“You know the energy barrier around our galaxy?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“We put that up with our minds.  The fall out is it grants psionic abilities to sensitive species.  It’s part of why the Vulcans can mind meld, the Betazoids are telepathic, the list goes on.  It’s an echo of our power being captured by your bodies.  So yeah, precognition exists.  At full power we’re more aware of what’s coming before other people.  But in this diminished capacity, the best I can do is tell you something’s up.”   
  
“Interesting.  And understood, is there anything else?”   
  
“Yeah.  I wasn’t going to say anything but could you check my clearance and find out what I’m locked out of.  Someone altered the command level lock out to specifically lock me out from being able to undo any of the locks on finding the first officer on this ship.  And I keep running into road blocks to finding him.  I’m fine if it’s just him not liking me and just making a concerted effort to avoid me.  I can utterly accept that.  But I would like to know so I can simply send my requests through text instead of trying to meet with him.”   
  
“Have you attempted to locate him via his com badge?”   
  
“Oh I found his com badge, alone in his office.  I can’t seem to locate him with out being locked out by the modified command lock out.”   
  
“I will look into it.”   
  
“Thank you.” q headed down to the mess hall and was sitting there working away when Tom came over and looked at him odd.  “What’s up?”   
  
“You been doing that long?” Tom nodded towards q’s hand where he was drawing something over and over again.   
  
“I... I wasn’t aware I was doing that.” He used his other hand to activate his pad and set it to a free hand drawing.  He put the pad under his hand and began tracing a symbol over and over again.   
  
“Does it mean anything?”   
  
“Yeah...” q frowned.  “It’s a constellation, a location in Romulan space.”   
  
“Where?”   
  
“Where we’re headed.  This point is Rho Tucanae, that’s Gacrux, this is Cortaynus, that’s T’met, and this last one is T’bak.”   
  
“So why are you drawing it?”   
  
“That’s a good question.” q looked at it.  “Okay this is getting weird.”   
  
“What’s going on, beyond the drawing.”   
  
“First I couldn’t find Ellis.  Then outside his office I got this strange sense of something wrong.  And now I’m drawing a symbol for the place we’re heading.  I’m not even remotely sure what all of it adds up to.”   
  
“I get on duty I can see about running scans for that area of space.”   
  
“Thanks.  I just... I wish I had more answers.  I hate being this cut off from my senses and my abilities.  If I had them, I’d just snap myself there and find out what’s up.”   
  
“I can’t imagine how it feels.” Tom sat his food aside.  “I mean we take for granted that this is what we see, this is what we feel.  But it wasn’t for you.”   
  
“I was always connected, not just to the others, but to everything.  And now... now that connection is so much less then it was.  And some part of me knows that’s why 0 keeps trying to come back.”   
  
“Zero?”   
  
“The reason for the energy barrier around the galaxy.  We’re trying to keep him from coming back.”   
  
“There’s a story in there.” Tom smiled, stirring his chili.   
  
“Yeah.  A long and brutal war where the entire Continuum fought against one being hell bent on the total destruction of reality.  It’s part of why we were so hands on when the Federation were attempting to open a hole through it.  It’s bad enough that the Iconians and their followers jumped through the barrier with their omega molecule drives.  But every person who goes through it or opens it risks 0 coming through.  I mean have you noticed the up tick in the number of psionic races that have had psychological break downs occurring in larger numbers?”   
  
“How are the two related?” Tom frowned then.   
  
“Psionic abilities are an echo of our powers we put into the barrier in the first place.  Every race reacts with that power differently.  Gaining different powers and levels.  But when someone with those abilities starts to go insane, driven mad by the power.  It’s because a tiny piece of 0’s consciousness has found a way in through their connection and their power.  And he tries to take them over.  The Continuum used to have to send someone in for each case and clean them out and sort of shut down their minds to give them time to heal away from their powers and his influence.  Now... now I’m not sure what to expect.  I... and you’re not even listening.”   
  
“I am, but you started drawing again.” Tom pointed and q looked down at where he’d been circling Gacrux.   
  
“Uh... do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”   
  
“I was really hoping you could tell me.”   
  
“Me too...”   
  


***

  
  
“Status Report?” Captain Chakotay was standing in sick bay where the Doctor was examining q.   
  
“His brain seems to be receiving telemetry and other input similarly to a long range sensor grid.” The Doctor finished a pass over q’s head.  “The interesting thing is I can’t determine where or even when these inputs are coming.”   
  
“So they’re external to his mind?”   
  
“Oh yes.” The Doctor walked over and put up his scan data.  “His brain is interacting with particles and vibrations that the rest of you are incapable of interacting on, on a scope I’ve never seen before.  I’ve consulted the Q database and it suggests treating him with a compound I had to look up how to make.” He held up the hypo-spray.  “It says that it’ll lower his more intense reactions to it.  But it also warns that what ever the source is we’re likely to see more pronounced reactions the closer we get to it.”   
  
“I don’t feel right using you as a homing beacon to find what we’re looking for.”   
  
“In this case sir, I think it’s not that hard.” q was sitting there on the bio bed.  “I think what ever we’re looking for is in the Gacrux system, on or around the planet.”   
  
“I’ll have a talk with the our Romulan guests and crew and see if any of them know anything about Gacrux.”   
  
“You might want to ask them if it’s known to have any temporal irregularities on or around it.” The Doctor frowned.   
  
“Why’s that Doctor?” Chakotay raised an eyebrow.   
  
“One of the primary signals I could detect had a chronoton variance of .03.”   
  
“.03, I wonder what that’s from.”   
  
“I don’t know.  But there is an automatic alert programmed into the ship to instantly alert Seven and the Admiral about any variances of that kind at that level.”   
  
“Sounds like I need to have a debrief about something that may or may not have happened on this ship.”   
  
“Good luck.” The Doctor waved as Chakotay walked out.   
  
“Computer, locate Seven of Nine and Admiral Janeway.”   
  
“Seven of Nine is located in Astrometrics Lab as is Admiral Janeway.”   
  
“Okay, that makes my job a little easier.” Chakotay walked to the nearest turbo lift.  “Deck 8, Astrometrics.”   
  


***

  
  
“Are you detecting anything with the upgrades we made to the Borg sensors with the sphere technology?” Janeway was looking at the spacial map.   
  
“No.  And we’re detecting no temporal anomalies.”   
  
“So why the hell are they trying to contact us?” Janeway crossed her arms.   
  
“Why are who trying to contact you?” Chakotay leaned against the wall.   
  
“We’re not supposed to tell you that.” Janeway sighed.   
  
“Someone who has to do with temporal anomalies and a chronoton variance of .03?”   
  
“We were informed that the temporal prime directive would be compromised if we spoke of it outside anyone who was involved in the incident.” Seven clarified.   
  
“Okay.” Chakotay nodded.  “So far I’ve been able to piece together a few things.  Something happened while we were in the Delta Quadrant last time.  Something involving time travel with the two of you.  And I’m betting part of it happened to you because of your Borg implants.” Chakotay looked at Seven.  “Mostly because you’re in here trying to use sphere enhanced Borg sensors looking for temporal anomalies.  Anomalies that either cause the variance or the variance is this mysterious person attempting to contact you about an anomaly.  How’m I doing so far?”   
  
“Pretty spot on.” Janeway sighed.  “There’s a time ship.  The USS Relativity.  They cleaned up all of our encounters with time travel.”   
  
“Are we looking for another call from Braxton?” Chakotay recalled their trip to the 20th century.   
  
“No.  At least I hope not.  We got him arrested the last time we ran into him.” Janeway sighed.   
  
“I don’t understand.”   
  
“He attempted to blow Voyager up to prevent future temporal incursions.  I and then Captain Janeway traveled back and forth in time to stop him and save the ship.  In the end Captain Janeway went back and prevented him from starting the chain of events so when we were resequenced into sync with the time line, it was as if the explosion never occurred.”   
  
“And you got Braxton arrested and handed him over to the USS Relativity.”   
  
“Where his younger self was the captain until we discovered his plot.” Seven added.   
  
“So you can see why I hope that Braxton never crosses our path again.  No it’s much more likely it’s the Relativity’s new Captain who ever that is.”   
  
“I would expect Lieutenant Ducane to have retained command.” Seven looked at the display.  “At any rate we’ve picked up nothing on long range sensors that would indicate a problem.  I already cleared the ship.  But I believe I have narrowed down where the variance is coming from.”   
  
“Where?” Janeway turned to the screen.   
  
“A spacial point in orbit of Gacrux.  In fact the exact point we’ll occupy while we shift from conventional warp engines to the quantum slipstream.”   
  
“I suppose we wont know what they want until we get then and there.” Janeway rubbed her forehead.  “With any luck we’ll have an idea  what they want by then.”   
  
“q is in sickbay for now.  I’m having him go off of active duty until after we get through that system.  The variance is effecting him.”   
  
“Good call.  Oh, do you know if he’s ready for the wedding yet.  Something tells me we need to have that done and let them have some time together as a family before we get into this mess.”   
  
“I think so.  He was looking for Ellis earlier, but he’s apparently ducking him.”   
  
“Strange.  He’s always been quite personable with me.”   
  
“And me.  I don’t know what his problem is with q.  But q also detected something ‘wrong’ outside his office.”   
  
“Wrong?  Wrong how?”   
  
“We’re not sure.  He walked in, found Ellis’ com badge in the room but no Ellis, and then walked out and felt something was off and that’s when we got this message.”   
  
“Seven, overlay the ship with the location of the transmission.  Can you pin point where we’ll be when the communication begins?”   
  
“Yes...” Seven worked on the overlay.  “It appears the two of us will be standing down the hall from the Commander’s office near one of the turbo lifts.” She pointed to the zoomed in overlay.  It’s concentrated on that location.”   
  
“That explains why he got the information about where, not only in the ship but in space, we’d need to be to make the communication.  Is there a way we can filter out the variance to give him some relief?”   
  
“Maybe.  I know with a level three forcefield an earlier version of Captain Janeway cut off my communications with the ship.”   
  
“I’ll have them erect one around their quarters tonight.” Chakotay nodded.   
  
“I want you in that hallway with us as soon as we come out of warp Captain.” Janeway looked at Chakotay.  “I don’t want to have to keep secrets from the Captain of my favorite ship.” She smiled.   
  
“Will do Admiral.” He bowed and smiled as he walked away.   
  
“Are you prepared for the wedding?” Seven turned to look at Janeway.   
  
“I’ve been studying the words for the ceremony.  I think I have a handle on it.”   
  
“I am... unsure of how to feel.”   
  
“Your son is growing up.  And he’s starting his own family.”   
  
“Correct.  But also because I think he may have another sibling on the way.” She looked up at the Admiral.   
  
“Seven.” She looked excited.   
  
“I have been experiencing symptoms of early pregnancy in a drone.  I need to stop by sickbay tonight to make sure.”   
  
“Well congratulations.”   
  
“Thank you Admiral.”   
  
“I hope this isn’t more trouble we’re flying into already.” She sighed.   
  
“Me either.”   
  


***

  
  
“Captain’s log, Stardate 70668.3 supplemental.” Chakotay was standing looking out the window as they sped past space.  “We recently passed through Iota Hydri system.  We’ve reached the half way mark to Gacrux and we’re getting ready to have a wedding on Voyager.  I’m torn between the happiness of the couple, my own happy news that I’m to be a father, and the worry as we get closer to this temporal communication that we might be heading into something bigger then we know.  The Doctor informed me one of our new crew still on Starbase 185 is healing up after an adventurous time with a Nausicaan.  Can’t wait to meet someone who sounds as wild as Tom Paris when I first met him.” He walked towards his desk.  “We’ve finished moving Admiral Janeway out of the office and she’s working out of her quarters for now.  She’ll be happy to have her new office when we rendezvous with the Antonia at Starbase 185.  I heard from them today.  They had to dock at Deep Space 4 to let the crew off while the Q finished their construction.  The ship is officially built and ready.  They’ll be jumping into quantum slipstream roughly the same time as us and arrive a few minutes after us to the station.” He sat down and looked over his data.   
  
“I’m almost ready to play my part in the first Q and Brunali wedding in history.  My adoptive son is getting married today.  I’m proud of Icheb.  And I think q is a good match for him.  I know Seven agrees.  I should be on my way.  End Captain’s Log supplemental.”   
  


***

  
  
“Is everyone ready to go in?” Janeway smiled, all the staff were in dress uniforms except for her, she was wearing a large flowing gown made of a near ivory velvet.  She opened the doors for them to the Holodeck only to find a pure white temple on a cliff side clearing over looking an ocean of blue green water.  She recognized some of the landscape as parts of the Brunali home world.  But the temple, the shapes and form language spoke more of something out of the Continuum.  She lead the way as people sat around on the pews provided.  She took her place at podium that seemed to be made of some kind of crystal.  It seemed to move if she took her eyes off of it.   
  
“Honored friends and gathered guests, let us open our hearts and welcome in these two souls who wish to be joined as one.” She raised her arms and the doors opened to allow q and Icheb in.   
  
q was wearing head to toe black, with red markings across the shoulders.  Janeway wondered if it was Q formal wear or if he’d designed it to go with both traditions.  But Icheb, he was wearing an emerald velvet suit that had markings she realized were Brunali prayers stitched into the clothing.  They walked together towards her and stopped midway where they were met by Seven, Chakotay, and Twelve.   
  
“To the mother of the family I wish to join, I grant this gift, the gift of personal history.” q held up the vial and presented it to Seven.  “Memories of your childhood, memories of your family and your life before.”   
  
“I accept these gifts in the spirit they were given and welcome you to my family.” She took the vial and moved to the left of the group.   
  
“To the father of the family I wish to join, I grant this gift, the gift of heritage.” He held up something akin to a spirit figure.  “Long ago the Continuum kept these, a sacred relic of where our people came from and where we are going.” He presented it to Chakotay.   
  
“I accept these gifts in the spirit with which they are given and the honor that they bring.  I too welcome you to our family.” He took the figure, which seemed to be carved out of the same material as the podium, but it looked kind of like the form that Jean-Luc and his crew had reported Q coming in first.  A ball with a three headed serpent inside the shape of a man.  Chakotay moved to join Seven.   
  
“To the brother whom I share my beloved with, who is so far from his sacred lands and away from the bones of his ancestors.  To him I offer this gift.  The gift of my ancestors.  May they join with yours and be your connection to that which is far from you now.” He held up a container that he hoped revealing bones that looked like they couldn’t possibly be from a humanoid species.  Twelve nodded, putting his hand on the basket of bones.   
  
“I accept this gift in the spirit with which it is given, and I welcome you to our family.” His voice shaking slightly as he held the basket and moved beside Chakotay.   
  
“This one has made the sacred offering, and none have found him wanting.  By the ancient rites of the tribe he is welcomed to this circle to speak the words of truth to bind him to his beloved.” Janeway spoke with authority as q and Icheb walked forward.  A blue ring appearing on the floor around her and the boys.  “A word of caution: Speak truth here and only truth.” She’d read up on what the circle could do.  The Q had been of one mind for a long time but before, before they were immortal, before they were all knowing, they’d invented these methods of telling if one Q was lying or not.  And it could burn the flesh from a Q’s bones even now to lie or bend the truth with in this circle.   
  
“I am q, son of Q and Q.  I come from the Continuum and I have pledged my life and my love to you Icheb.  I have loved you since the day we met.  My immature methods of trying to gain your attention right up to our flirtations at the academy.  I have loved you since then, and I will love you till every star burns out and the universe folds in on itself.”  Janeway was impressed that the ring didn’t flare once the entire time.   
  
“I am Icheb.  Son of Seven of Nine and of Chakotay.  Brother of Twelve, son of Brunali.  I come from both the Collective and the Brunali and I pledge my life and my love to you q.  I knew you before I knew what love was.  You were the friend I didn’t know I needed and the shoulder that was always there for me and the arms to hold me when I needed held and to catch me when I fell.  I don’t think I realized I was in love with you until you showed up and crashed my date with Kavi.  I think watching you attach him to the ceiling of the cafe we were at made me realize how jealous you were of him, and in that moment I realized the only reason you would be jealous was because you had feelings for me.  It’s why I agreed to go out with you and haven’t looked back since.  You are my light and my love.  I can’t imagine my life with out you.  I welcome you to my family.” He held q’s hands.  “May we journey forward in making our own.”   
  
“By the power vested in me by the New Continuum, and by the power of the proxia alignment of the fourteen galaxies, I name you husband and husband.  It is my supreme honor to join these two souls at one family.  May their shared light be a beacon forwards into the unknown forever.”   
  
“Here here!” The group cheered.   
  
The ring flared to life but changed color to red and q and Icheb kissed, their hands touching as matching rings were replicated on their hands.  They pulled back and smiled at one another as they welcomed everyone to stick around for the food.  They broke apart only to greet the guests.  Icheb went over to where the Doctor and his family were standing.   
  
“Doctor.  I’m glad you could make it.  All of you could.  I wanted to tell you that Reg and I had a long talk with Doctor Zimmerman and we managed to program something special for all four of you.” He smiled, leading them over to a secondary table of refreshments, that bore a mark in Brunali on it’s table cloth.  “Photonic food.”   
  
“But we don’t need to eat...” He started.   
  
“I know.  But we designed a program that works with your built in sensory receptors.  I know you can appreciate taste and some of the other factors in food.  But what we did was scan Doctor Zimmerman while he ate various samples, and translated those into a biological database that’s encoded into every photonic dish.  Effectively, when you take a bite, it’ll react with the program inside and the data will let you feel like you’re an organic being eating solid foods.” He smiled.   
  
“I... I don’t know what to say.”   
  
“Have a sip of this.” Icheb picked up a glass and poured something into it.   
  
“I... I can smell it.  I... goodness.” The Doctor pulled a face of disgust.  “That is pungent.”   
  
“Taste it at least.”   
  
“Okay.” The Doctor took a sip.  “It’s... warm and cold at the same time.  I can feel it warm as it passes my lips but it seems to chill as it touches my mouth.  And.. I can’t describe the taste.  It’s...”   
  
“Tangy with a hint of cinnamon?” Icheb supplied.   
  
“Yes, yes exactly.”   
  
“It’s a Brunali drink called Farlin.  It’s made from one of the root crops they grow on my home world.  Enjoy.  The food is a mix of Federation worlds, worlds that q and I went to on our travels, and our personal favorites.”   
  
“Interesting.”   
  
“And the program should work with your entire family.  So enjoy.  I’m in the process of adapting it with our entire data base so any dish you replicate that’s photonic will have the full meal’s effect on all of you.”   
  
“You’re becoming quite adept at programming languages.”   
  
“My passion has always been in astrometrics, but lately I’ve found I have a knack for constructing engineering items.  I want your input on a project I suggested to my husband recently.” Icheb smiled wistfully at the first time he used that term for q.   
  
“Stop by after the honey moon, I’d love to see your work.”   
  
“I’ll be sure to do that.  Enjoy yourself Doctor, Mareeza.” He nodded at her and the kids.  Jeffery had a hold of one of Jason’s hand and walked with him helping to fix his plate.   
  
“You know, I think giving him the ability to use the emitter agreed with him.” Mareeza hung back and watched the boys.   
  
“He’s growing into a fine young man.  And I’m glad he’s starting to bond with some of the people of the ship.”   
  
“I am too.” He smiled as he watched them picking at some Vulcan dishes.   
  
“Though I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to Klingon food.” She shook her head as they started filling their plates.   
  
“A sentiment I agree on as well.  But at least he doesn’t require all of us to eat it.”   
  
“It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it now.”   
  
“That’s sure to prove interesting.  Oh, speaking of I was meaning to ask, how was the music lesson this week?” The Doctor turned to his wife.   
  
“Pretty well.  The kids are enjoying learning their scales.” She smiled as she looked over the food and picking up some Bajoran dishes.  “I never realized I’d love teaching so much.”   
  
“Well you were an amazing author for the music you wrote, and you had such a passion for it.”   
  
“And the Federation database has such a large selection.”   
  
“Every species we’ve encountered has their own forms of music.”   
  
“I think the Klingon Operas have given Jeffery and I something to bond over.”   
  
“That I can imagine quite vividly.” He smiled.  “I wonder how he’ll handle being around actual Klingons.”   
  
“Are we due to have some more aboard?”   
  
“A small delegation from the empire, and I have it on authority that a few of the ex drones that Star Fleet is sending to us started out life as Klingons.”   
  
“Do you know if they’ll have any children his age?” “I haven’t heard to be honest.  I’m sort of hoping they will.  It’s important to have people to socialize with.  I mean Icheb’s a little older them him.  I’m not remotely sure on q’s age.  Naomi is between his and Icheb’s age.  And there are a few other children on Voyager.  I’m happy we’ve started allowing families on board.”   
  
“As am I.” Mareeza smiled as she kissed her husband.   
  


***

  
  
“So where are we at?” Janeway looked over at q.   
  
“This is where my ancestors were lain to rest.” Twelve looked at them.   
  
“Yeah.  The Brunali are one of the only races in the entire universe that do it, but they hold their weddings in graveyards.”   
  
“Really.” Janeway looked between them.  “It’s certainly a different way of doing it.  In ancient times on my planet we used to bury our dead in churches and hold our weddings there as well.  A way of honor our loved ones and move towards the future while remembering the past.”   
  
“Which is why we do it as well.” Twelve nodded, his own cloths looking similar to Icheb’s but in a blue tone.  “Our ancestors are apart of the land, and the land is apart of us.  So our ancestors are apart of us.”   
  
“It’s why I choose this setting.  I did the scans of it when I was here years ago.” q looked around with a smile looking at everything.   
  
“You.. I vaguely remember you.” Twelve frowned.  “You were there right after Icheb was born.”   
  
“Yep.” q smiled.  “I wasn’t sure you remembered me.  You spent most of the time outside with the other children.  It was a long time ago.”   
  
“I realize Icheb said you weren’t like us, but how old are you?”   
  
“A couple centuries now.  But my people exist outside of space time and move around in time like it’s air.  Unfortunately we’ve been cut off from that power or I’d have taken Icheb on a tour around space and time for our honeymoon.” He shrugged.  “But I was there visiting your family getting data about the Brunali health information, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Icheb.” q looked distracted suddenly.   
  
“What is it?” Janeway frowned.   
  
“I... I’m hearing the coms trying to connection through time...” q’s face seemed blank.  “I think I may need to start using that shield configuration now.”   
  
“Janeway to Ops.  Erect a level four forcefield around this Holodeck.”   
  
“Yes ma’am.”   
  
“We’ll inform you when we are ready to go.”   
  
“Understood ma’am.”


	7. The Future calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voyager makes it to the Gacrux system and it’s catching up with where and when the Relativity is sending a message about the ever growing spacial anomalies that are threatening time itself as it breaks down the fabric of existence.

“Stardate 70674.1, Chief Moral Officer’s Log, supplemental.” q was looking out the window of their new quarters.  “Icheb and I have been enjoying our time off to celebrate our union.  And we started moving to our new quarters.  My old quarters were fine for the two of us, but adding a third person and we had need to move into one of the vacant officer quarters.  Icheb’s regenerating right now, so I’m enjoying the view.  We’ve entered the Gacrux system and we’re moving into position for the transmission.  Once we get that out of the way we’re far enough out of Romulan space so that we can jump to quantum slipstream and we’ll be at Starbase 185 in roughly thirteen minutes.  Icheb timed his regeneration cycle to end roughly as we’re coming out of quantum slipstream.  He’s pretty sure he’ll go into labor shortly after the jump.  I’m inclined to believe him.” q looked towards their bedroom.   
  
“We’ve been talking about our son’s powers and what to do about them and we’ve come to the decision that when the other Q get on board we’ll put a limiter on his powers for now.  It’s going to be hard enough to teach him not to abuse his powers the way I did growing up.  Especially with the new Continuum being collectively weaker then what we’re used to... I’m not sure how we’d reign him in otherwise.” q sighed.  “Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and Icheb’s moral core will work out to be genetic.” He smiled.  “On the plus side it’ll be nice to have other Q here to act as a back up so I don’t feel as cut off form everyone I knew.  I’m not even sure if I’ll know everyone who’s making the trip out here.” He paused.   
  
“I’ll be glad when we’re out of range from this com blast, living behind this force field is starting to grate on my nerves.  I can only imagine how Icheb feels with his enhanced senses in here.  I think it’s the low level hum from it that’s making it difficult to sleep.  Or the thought that I’m just a few short hours away from being a father and something is happening that’s so big that a ship that strives to maintain the time line is reaching out to contact us.  I just... I’m feeling overwhelmed.  Which is new for me.  I miss having unlimited control over space, time, and matter.  But it’s given me a better view of life with Icheb.” He chuckled.  “I am getting a better grasp on my new limits but it’s nice to just spend time with Icheb.  This morning we spent hours just snuggling close listening to music and laying in the cool bedroom basking in each other’s presence.  I can’t imagine my life with out this.  I...”   
  
“q?” Icheb walked out, his hair sticking up at odd angels from where he’d been laying on the bed before going into his regeneration cycle.   
  
“What is it honey?”   
  
“I think the labor is starting.” He winced as he held his belly.   
  
“Computer stop recording.  q to Doctor.”   
  
“Yes?” The Doctor came across the coms.   
  
“Icheb’s labor’s a bit early.”   
  
“I’d have bet on his internal chronometer being accurate as to when it would start.” The Doctor’s frown could be heard in his voice.  “Bring him on down to sickbay.  Let me know if it gets worse.”   
  
“Will do.” q snapped and Icheb’s loosest pajamas were on him as was his robe that q helped him fasten before they headed out.   
  
“I don’t understand why it’s so soon.” Icheb winced again.   
  
“I...” q stumbled and had to catch himself.  “It’s the disruptions to space time... I don’t know if it’s the communication we’re waiting on or if it’s what the communication is about, but the baby can feel it... is experiencing it.”   
  
“We need to hurry.” Icheb’s face was pale from strain.   
  
“Gotcha.” q nodded, helping Icheb make it to the turbo lift where he sat down inside.  “Deck 5, Sickbay.” The doors closed and Icheb leaned his head against the cool metal of the turbo lift.  “It’ll be okay.” q smiled down at him, feeling how warm Icheb felt and worrying.   
  


***

  
  
“Captain, we’re finally getting a lock on Voyager.  Stardate 70674.3, Spacial Grid 104 by 17 by 309, Beta Quadrant, on the edge of the old Romulan Empire, Gacrux system.”   
  
“Can we beam through?”   
  
“Negative sir.  The interference is only growing stronger.”   
  
“That’s okay Vax, audio only.  Captain Ducane to Seven of Nine.” He waited watching the coms trying to lock on.   
  


***

  
  
“Admiral.” Seven drew Janeway’s attention to the static noise coming from her coms.   
  
“See if you can clean it up.”   
  
“I’m attempting to isolate the carrier frequency...” She began typing on the nearest interface.   
  
“Ca-ain Du-ne ta Sev- Nin-” The voice started to get clearer.  “Captain Ducane to Seven of Nine, please respond.”   
  
“This is Seven of Nine, how may I help you Captain?”   
  
“It’s good to hear your voice again Seven.”   
  
“I am not alone.  Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay are her.” She informed him, her formal posture taking hold of her as she stood there.   
  
“Ah, under normal circumstances I’d have avoided direct lines of communication with this many of you, but we’re not dealing with normal circumstances.”   
  
“What’s happening that you’ve reached out Captain?” Janeway asked.   
  
“Voyager’s mission, Full Circle.  It’s going to run into a snag that starts with in the next few hours.  We had to catch you before you entered the edge of the disruption.”   
  
“Disruption?” Janeway looked around.   
  
“It’s what we’re calling it.  We’ve never seen anything like it.  A hole is forming in your time frame that is opening up to all possible out comes and even a few impossible ones.  Effectively it’s creating temporal chaos on a grand scale.”   
  
“Well we’ll just have to navigate around it and...”   
  
“Normally, again, I’d advice that Captain.  But it’s centered in orbit over the Cuvomb homeworld, and if they weren’t crucial to Full Circle, I wouldn’t have hesitated to have you just fly around the effected area and avoid the paradoxes and we’d close the breach that way.  But the Cuvomb need Voyager to rescue them from this disruption, and Voyager needs the Cuvomb later on.  The problem is, the paradoxes you’ll experience as you get closer to Cuvomb space will only intensify.”   
  
“What kind of paradoxes?” Chakotay asked.   
  
“The hole is opening up to unrealized realities.  Paths that could not occur in our space time anymore.  Events moved in such a way that those out comes were simply impossible to sustain.  Now they’re bleeding through.  I’m watching Kazon controlled Voyagers ravaging the Delta Quadrant, a Borg controlled Voyager headed towards the Alpha Quadrant, and those are just some of the hundreds of time lines we’re dealing with.”   
  
“So you’re saying if we enter this region of space, to rescue the Cuvomb was it?  That we’ll face these other versions of Voyager?” Janeway frowned.   
  
“Yes Admiral.  You could find yourself face to face with any number of versions of yourself or your crew either on your ship or suddenly find yourself on theirs, it’s like looking through an endless hall of fun house mirrors.”   
  
“Which begs the question how do we close this disruption?” Chakotay spoke up.   
  
“We’re unsure.  We’ve never had anything remotely like this occur before.  The Cuvomb have no temporal technologies so we know they haven’t done this, the current theory is that when q created the macro omega molecule to stabilize the reaction, that it some how reacted with a natural deviation in space time and caused this.”   
  
“Then couldn’t the Q simply...”   
  
“I’m not sure Captain.  In my time frame the Continuum, the old one, was never seen from again.  The Q who were trapped on our side of the wall never obtained that level of power again.”   
  
“And with out their full power they wouldn’t stand a chance at closing the disruption in our time frame.” Janeway concluded.   
  
“Exactly Admiral.  History must be maintained.  You have a trip to Starbase 185 and crew members to pick up.  The problem is you also have to be mindful of the disruption and the paradoxes you’re likely to find.  I wish we knew more.”   
  
“You talk as if we’ll be coming across the Cuvomb relatively soon, but I know this region of space from my time with the Borg, there aren’t any sentient species in this region of space...” Seven frowned.   
  
“The Borg actively avoid the Cuvomb.” Ducane chuckled.   
  
“Why would they...”   
  
“The Cuvomb not only can’t be assimilated, but trying to approach their world has cost the collective a number of vessels.  The simply declared it too dangerous and give it a wide birth.”   
  
“They can’t be assimilated?” Janeway looked shocked.   
  
“I assume you remember your encounter with a Mr. Tuvix?”   
  
“Yes...” Janeway frowned.   
  
“The Cuvomb evolved in a similar fashion, and when injected with nano probes, their bodies simply assimilate the probes into their biology before the probes can assimilate them.”   
  
“Similar to the way the Undine were immune.”   
  
“The Undine simply fought it off from a cellular level, the Cuvomb consume it at a cellular level, making the technology part of them at a base level but not becoming a part of the collective.  It’ll make more sense when you meet them.”` Ducane assured her.   
  
“We’ll keep looking for methods to close the opening from our side.” Janeway assured him as he began to cut out.   
  
“Und-rstood Ad-iral” Captain Ducane’s voice distorted before fading all together.   
  
“Can you get him back Seven?” Janeway looked hopeful.   
  
“Unfortunately not.  The carrier wave has been obscured by an unknown energy field that we’ve entered.” She rerouted a map to your display.  “It isn’t impeding any other systems as far as I can tell.  But it is making trans temporal communications impossible.”   
  
“We’ll have to trust that’s what we need.  Now we need a method for dealing with an unseen unknown energy that is capable of disrupting space time with out disrupting the rest of the ship with it.”   
  
“I can begin attempting to re-calibrate astrometrics to determine a way to detect and possible contain the energy form.” Seven looked between the others.   
  
“Agreed.  Though at this point I’m starting to wonder if we shouldn’t invest in a temporal mechanics lab.” Chakotay sighed.   
  
“One step at a time.” Janeway grimaced.  “But probably not a bad idea.”   
  
“I think you should try contacting Starfleet while I go to the bridge and set course to the Starbase.  Seven, see what you can come up with, and we know that the Cuvomb are on our course when we enter the Delta Quadrant and relatively soon, see if you can use that to pen point where the rift is and where they are.”   
  
“Understood Captain.” She nodded to him and Janeway before walking away.   
  
“I knew I made a good choice putting you in command.” Janeway smiled before heading to the turbo lift with him.  “Deck 2.” She said as the doors closed.   
  
“Glad you approve.”   
  
“Do you know who you want working on the Temporal Mechanic’s lab, or should I request additional personal?” Janeway looked over at him.   
  
“I have a feeling we won’t have a shortage of personnel soon.” Chakotay smiled holding up a pad.   
  
“What is it?”   
  
“Full Circle just gained another ship.”   
  
“Oh?  Why wasn’t I made aware?” Janeway quirked an eyebrow at him, taking the pad when offered.   
  
“You were standing in a hallway waiting to talk to the future.  So I took a message.”   
  
“The Road Island is joining us?” She looked up at him.   
  
“Harry’s ship was added this morning.  He’s apparently already docked at Starbase 185, resupplying for the trip.”   
  
“Feels like the family’s mostly back together.”   
  
“Give or take a few members.  There were a few who never want to see the Delta Quadrant again, but most of us are back to give it another go.  I think a lot of the crew just wanted to make sure this was done right.”   
  
“I agree.” Janeway smiled.  “Have you had a chance to look at Naomi’s entrance test for Starfleet yet?”   
  
“She had a lot of good tutors over the years.  It doesn’t shock me so much that she gave such a good showing on her first exam.”   
  
“They agreed to allow her to take some of the entry level classes here like they did Icheb.  It’s hard to believe she’s only twelve years old.”   
  
“But physically she appears to be in her twenties.  The blessing of being half Ktarian I suppose.”   
  
“They grow up so fast and then they stay that physical peek for longer.  I’d call it a blessing.”   
  
“Her parents are both on board this time.  So it’ll give them a chance to bond.  And I think she’s happy that we’re heading towards Neelix.”   
  
“It’s hard to believe he’s married with children now.” Janeway smiled.  “Have we had any word from him since we sent the message that we’d be coming back?”   
  
“No.  But that’s not unexpected.  The Talaxian colony is far enough away that even using the relay it’ll take a while to reach him.  Something we’re hoping to fix while we’re out there.”   
  
“It’ll be interesting to see him again.” Janeway smiled.  “When he first came aboard I figured we’d never find a place for him, but by the time he left I didn’t know if we’d survive with out him.”   
  
“He became a part of the family.” Chakotay smiled.  “Who knows maybe we’ll run into a paradox where he never left.”   
  
“We very well might.   
  


***

  
  
“Tivin.” A female in a black cloak, it’s leather like material buckled down one side so that only her hands and head were exposed.  The powder blue of her skin only broken by the ruse stripes that spread from the center of her face.  Her large node like ears going into her hair that seemed to be a mixture of hair and quills.  Her eyes twin pools of liquid lilac in black eye balls.  Her powdery blue hands covered in bone protrusions that almost looked like her hands were more encased in them then they being encased in her flesh.   
  
“Yes?” Tivin was dressed like her, his body larger though he wore markings of ruse and black that came from the back of his head towards the front, and his eyes lime green, but other then his size, he was similar to her in every other way.  He was sitting in a lavender room looking at a display on a compilation of blue glass panes layered in a sphere.   
  
“The council says the inoblian particles have reached 43% concentration and they’re starting the isolation fields to protect us.” She blinked with multiple sets of eyelids.   
  
“I’ve been warning them for days that the readings were too high.” He pointed to the display he was watching, where it displayed the read outs of the distortion near their planet.  “While it has it’s moods and flares up from time to time, this... this is more.”   
  
“What can we do?”   
  
“Nothing now.  Once it reaches 46% we’ll be trapped here till it reaches high enough to crash the isolation and then it will rise till it reaches a level that we won’t be able to cope with.”   
  
“What evidence do you have to...”   
  
“You sound like the council.” He smiled.  “The problem is they are judging this against all previous recordings for this season of the cycle.  But it must be judged against all of the recordings as a whole.  They have been spiking more and more every year.  But the readings are over eighty times higher in short order.  Something has changed and with out the knowledge of what that is, we do not know how high the readings will rise.  At 46% we’ll be unable to leave the isolation for a long period.  Maybe a whole season.  But if it reaches 57% or higher the vodin trees will die and then our people are back to where we were before we evolved to this state.  Who knows, maybe the next race to evolve on Cuvomb will be more resistant to the radiation.” Tivin sighed.   
  
“But the vodin trees... they’re the most heavily protected...”   
  
“This is a planet wide alert: Inoblian levels have reached 44.32%.” The sound of another Cuvomb masculine voice came across from pods on the wall.   
  
“Entva, get back to your home, quickly.  Use the personal transporter if you must.  But get home.  It is not safe to walk the streets, and soon the shields over the walkways will be flooded and the transporters wont work in this mess either.”   
  
“But... what about you?” She frowned at him, her brow covered in thin almost transparent blue quills.   
  
“I’ll be fine.  I’m going to do the only thing I can do.  Try to contact someone, anyone off world who can help.” He pointed to another room where he’d been building a new, much larger sphere of those blue panels of crystal.   
  
“What is that?” She blinked at it, her head slightly tilted to the side.   
  
“I’m attempting to build a broadcast unit that will cut through the interference.” A bubbling sphere of static popped into being in the center.  “I’ve been picking up signals off and on all day.  Fragments of messages that fade in and out.  I may be too low to the ground yet to get a proper signal out.  But I know that there is someone out there who is up there, caught in the midst of this... storm.”   
  
“Be careful Tivin.” She touched his shoulder.   
  
“I always am.  Go, you have a brood to look after.  And you know Iven worries when you’re gone.”   
  
“Just be careful.  I’m going to be too far away to save you from your silly inventions this time.” She swatted him before moving to a blue crystal hexagon and turning a series of dials before fading into blue and gold energy and vanishing.   
  
“I don’t need saving from my brood mate this time.” Tivin turned back to his device.  “I need saving from someone who can save us all.” Tivin tinkered with his device through out the night, the alerts going out right up till the radiation hit 46.71% and the global communication network died from the radiation.  He was truly alone now, power at semi sustainable levels thanks to the back up generators and power supplies he’d cobbled together for years.  He wasn’t sure about everyone in this settlement.  But he know those he was close to or shared a bond with had some of his technology plugged into their shield matrices, at least he’d be assured they’d be safe enough till their power ran out.  He hadn’t told his brood mate that he’d installed larger versions at her house when she and Iven had taken over their brood home and used the same vodin tree that their brood had come from, to make a brood of their own.  He’d put one larger then the ones in his own home in the garden near that tree, so that it was likely to survive anything that happened.  The one around the grounds was designed to keep going as long as possible.   
  
He’d taken the time to build an underground shield as well as a fall out shelter.  He’d also programmed the sensor grid on the property that once the radiation hit 47% it would warn his brood mate, inform her of the heavier protection farther in towards the tree of their birth, directing her to lead her family to the garden.  And once the radiation hit above 55% it would start indicating to get inside the shelter.  He’d built a system to put an even greater shield over the vodin tree once they were in the shelter, there was enough materials and power generation to keep her and her family safe for five years.  Once the radiation stopped, if it stopped, she’d be able to get off world then.  He’d been sure to take soil samples, and a cutting from that vodin tree and make sure they were built into the ship.  If she needed to she could take what remained of their family and leave this world to it’s hardships.  He’d studied the attacks of the Borg when they tried to breach the isolation of Cuvomb and he’d charted a course he hoped would take her away from Borg space and give them a greater chance to survive.   
  
The Cuvomb had once been space fairing but had long ago given up the practice to care for their home world and raise it’s prosperity back up.  There were few people like Tivin who still practiced the old customs of preparing for space.  But he knew that with the likelihood of a worse storm from the rift spilling out onto their world was becoming more and more certain that he had to prepare.  And while his need for self preservation was high, his need to keep his brood mate alive was stronger.  She was the head of their family.  The pillar of strength that all of them drew their strength from.  He would not see his family fall, even if it meant staying on Cuvomb to burn with the rest.  He had a small shuttle.  Something that he could get off world with if he needed to.  But he’d been applying all his resources to his brood mate’s ship.  And was well aware that if the radiation hit 50% his only options were to get off world or stay and burn with it.   
  
He was just starting to wonder if he should give up on this communication orb and move it to the shuttle and prep for launch, maybe tend to the shields and make sure they could handle a launch, when the sphere lit up.   
  
“Captain, we’re detecting an omnidirectional communication coming from some where beyond the spacial anomaly ahead.”   
  
“Hello?” Tivin spook at the sphere.   
  
“Sir... we’re picking up vocal patterns.  Universal translator is attempting to...” The signal went in and out.  Clearly what ever those noises were, they didn’t speak the same language.   
  
“I don’t know if you can hear me.  I don’t know if you can understand me.  My only hope is to keep talking and hope that not only can you hear me but that you can save my planet.  I’m recording this to broadcast on a loop.  With any luck either my translation matrix or yours will find a way of communicating before I have to leave.  I’m going to be prepping my shuttle to launch while this plays.  Please help us.  My people have given up their warp travel through the stars for life on this planet, if you can help us, please do.  I’m aware this message will be heard by all my neighbors in this settlement.  I have done what I can to reinforce their shields and I am activating my power diverter to send as much power as I can to help protect them.  Once I launch the power from my home will activate a larger shield array I’ve built around the settlement.  With any luck it will hold long enough to protect you till you can either get deep enough underground or find a way off world.  I am looking for any help from any outsiders willing to help get my people off this planet and save us.”  He pressed the transmit button after he recorded it and left it running while he went to ready his shuttle.  With an endless automated loop playing, at least he could give some hope to the settlement that they knew he’d reached someone.  And that he was trying to buy them some time.  At most at this rate the greater shield would buy them two maybe three extra hours protection.  Before it burned itself out.  Turning it on would burn his home’s protections out entirely.  But it was worth it.   
  
He looked at the lavender interior of his shuttle and at the cutting of the vodin tree he kept in it.  His people would not die here, not entirely.  He worked for hours getting the shuttle ready and moving the sphere into it and hooking it up to the power grid inside the ship.  He shut off the loop and spoke direction to those people in the settlement.   
  
“This is Tivin, I’m launching now.  I’ve been able to repair six of the ships in some of the family estates.  Those of you I’ve been able to help, save who you can.  When my shield goes up, it should give you two hours to transport to where you need to go, and to get what supplies you can to your ships.  The radiation will kill us if we stay here.  My only regret is I couldn’t help more of you.  I’m broadcasting the most heavily protected areas and where the ships are that can handle as many of you as can get aboard.  As well as where the shelters underground are.  I’m going to fly towards the ship that I detected on the other side of the rift and with any luck, I’ll find someone who can help us.  Save who you can, and be the best you can be in this trying time.” He closed out the com and launched his ship, the shields on his home instantly failing but as he rocketed up into the atmosphere the greater shield flared into life, he’d spent the last four years getting six of the largest carriers space worthy.  He estimated that maybe 60% of the settlement could get into space, the other 40% would have to get one of the shelters.  He didn’t envy anyone the choice they would have to make.   
  
“Inoblian levels at 59% and rising.” The ship warned him.  “Inoblian levels at 64% and rising...”   
  
“I’m aware.  Thank you computer.” He muttered, turning off the voice warning and watching the gauge as he flew out into naked space and the readings hit 100%.  His shields would only tolerate these levels for maybe an hour.  He scanned for the source of the transmission and aimed his ship at it.  Moving the cutting of the vodin tree with him, he reached an isolation pod he’d built into the center of the ship.  “Computer, engage active ai response.  If the ship out there manages to speak our language, speak to them.  If they don’t, keep replaying the standard message, with the added bonus of telling them I’m in stasis to survive the radiation.  Give them the shield configurations to make it safe for us, and with any luck they’ll take us in and be able to help.  If they can do that, activate the plan contained in your systems.”   
  
“Understood Tivin.  Please sleep well.” The pod closed around him and the cutting in it’s own isolation pod.   
  
“You too computer.  Good luck.” He closed his eyes and winced as the liquid crystal gel poured in.  It’d drop his vitals down to near death, but it would saturate him in radiation protection.  He’d be able to survive like this for long after they were outside of the radiation and hopefully long enough for the ship to decontaminate so he could come out and pilot them to a habitable system soon.  He was putting a lot of trust into these unknown outsiders from another world, but he was out of options at this point.


End file.
